James Madison struggles against Duke in second round of NCAA tournament

As a No. 12 seed in this NCAA men’s basketball tournament, they felt slighted. They probably had a point.

But adages catch for a reason. There is, in fact, a first time for most things. Sunday, in the round of 32, JMU found out in a 93-55 loss to Duke. Its players competed to the final buzzer of its season despite a cooked score. They crashed the boards on offense. They sprinted up and down. Duke, though — fourth-seeded, blue-blooded Duke — was way too much to handle. Freshman guard Jared McCain scored 30 points, shooting 8 for 11 from three. If James Madison left a Blue Devil open, he often made the shot. They made 14 threes, shooting 50 percent, to JMU’s four. That accounted for 30 points of the final difference.

“It didn’t come out the way we wanted,” JMU guard Terrence Edwards Jr. said. “But we appreciate the support, and now everybody knows who JMU is all over the nation. That’s why we do it.”

It took less than two minutes for JMU to enter the danger zone. It happened like this: Edwards and Kyle Filipowski wrestled on the block. Edwards really didn’t want the 7-foot center to get position. But Edwards, JMU’s best scorer, the brain center of its ball-sharing offense, tried just a little too hard to prevent that. Their arms tangled, and a ref blew his whistle. Edwards was popped for his second foul.

After JMU beat Wisconsin on Friday, three players noted how loose officiating had made them increase their defensive intensity. This game was immediately called much tighter. So Edwards went to the bench, head shaking. And for the next six minutes, before he checked back in, Duke built a 10-point lead. McCain couldn’t miss, canning his first six attempts from three. The Blue Devils had their way in the paint.

Toward the end of the half, after Filipowski scored on back-to-back possessions, JMU Coach Mark Byington burned another timeout. It felt, honestly, like his only chance to slow Duke down, talking things over while the mascots started a dance contest. The Duke Dog, nude aside from his purple cape, shuffled a little at center court. The Blue Devil answered with the worm. When they finished, when there was a bit more time to kill, a winner was picked based on the crowd noise for each contestant.

The arena went crazy for the near-naked dog. For the Blue Devil, most people booed. Beyond JMU’s fans, anyone here for Connecticut vs. Northwestern — tipping off later — threw their weight behind James Madison (or wherever they had to to not back Duke). Hating the Blue Devils is a March tradition, like baseball spring training or your office’s bracket pool. But in the end, narratives don’t win basketball games. Threes, muscle and defensive rotations do.

On Friday, James Madison had all of that on Wisconsin, making it seem like a Cinderella team with more travel plans. Then Duke showed up.

“You could kind of tell they put us on our heels,” forward Julien Wooden said of Duke’s hot shooting start. “They put us in a hole. It was hard to get out of.”

The ending looked a lot like the beginning. Edwards kept attacking, hitting two floaters and a layup at the start of the second half. But the Blue Devils didn’t miss a single beat. McCain shook loose and hit his first three of the second half. Two possessions later, Filipowski hit a layup through a foul, then screamed at the ceiling. When Noah Freidel blocked Mark Mitchell on a fast break, meeting the Duke forward at the rim, JMU had the faintest sign of life. Freidel, uninterested in celebrating, clapped once. The bench stood up and yelled. But moments later, Filipowski flipped a pass to Tyrese Proctor, who nailed a corner three while falling into Duke’s bench.

Proctor’s teammates surrounded him, making him disappear in a crowd of white shirts. Again, after taking one step forward, James Madison fell five more back. With less than eight minutes left, Freidel hit a three in front of his team’s bench, shrinking the deficit from 34 points to 31. The JMU crowd, so loud throughout the weekend, cheered without yelling much. Freidel’s shirt was untucked by then, his face bleeding a bit through a small cut on his cheek.

As final images go, these weren’t fair to the rest of JMU’s season. They dominated their conference. In manhandling Wisconsin, they introduced themselves to the world. But of the 68 teams that play in March Madness, 67 end on a loss, no matter what came before. Then they hope to appreciate the rest in time.

“It was an extremely difficult night for us,” Byington said. “When things come to an end, it’s never a good feeling.”