Kell Scores Season-High 19 Points as W&M Falls at JMU, 77-60

02/14/08 5:45PM

HARRISONBURG, Va. - Junior Dani Kell scored a season-high 19 points, but the William and Mary women’s basketball team fell at James Madison, 77-60, on Thursday evening in Harrisonburg, Va.

In addition to Kell’s impressive performance, senior Devin James also came up big with 16 points, six rebounds and four steals. Senior Kyra Kaylor nearly registered a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds. The Pittsburgh, Pa., native also set the school record for games played (116), breaking the previous mark of 115 established by Sarah Stroh (2003-07).

Although JMU (17-6, 10-2) connected on its first three shots to open the game, the Tribe (11-13, 5-7) trailed by just one, 6-5, at the initial media timeout.

W&M briefly took the lead, 12-11, when James sank a three-pointer at the 14:32 mark, but the College went scoreless during the next 4:54 as JMU built a double-digit advantage, 22-12.

While the Green and Gold narrowed the margin to eight, 25-17, on a layin by freshman Katherine DeHenzel with 6:41 showing, the Dukes answered with six consecutive points to take its biggest lead of the half, 31-17.

The Tribe closed the opening stanza by scoring the final six points and trailed 35-28 as the teams headed to the locker room. Junior Courtney Portell punctuated the 6-0 spurt with a three-pointer from the top of the key just moments before the halftime buzzer sounded.

At the break, Kaylor led W&M with a team-high seven points and five rebounds. As a team, the College forced JMU into 13 turnovers during the initial period.

Although the Dukes began the second half with an 8-0 run, the Tribe charged back with eight straight points of its own. Kell provided four points during the stretch.

The Tribe still trailed by seven following a short jumper by James with 14:22 remaining, but James Madison rattled off a 9-3 run during the next 2:15 to open up a 57-44 lead.

A three-pointer by Kell cut JMU’s advantage to 57-47, but the Dukes rattled off the next eight points to go ahead, 65-47, with 9:21 left.

James Madison extended the margin to as many as 22 points, and the Tribe was unable to get closer than 15 the rest of the way. James and Kell combined to scored 26 of W&M’s 32 points in the second half.

The Tribe will return to action when it hosts Northeastern on Sunday at 3 p.m. The contest will be televised live by Comcast SportsNet.

Box Score