F’N Bank Arena was lit. The student section was crunk. And Red Wolves shooting was cold. The first ten minutes saw one bucket for Arkansas State – a three pointer from Dyondre Dominguez. Red Wolves fans sat with anticipation through a 1-16 drought until Taryn Todd finally dropped a bucket. By then, the Dukes had a double digit lead, and Arkansas State found themselves digging themselves out of a hole.

“Didn’t play good enough to play a really good basketball team,” said Coach Bryan Hodgson.

The hole was 35-22 at the half with the Red Wolves shooting at a gobsmacking 19% (the Dukes, on the other hand, hit 42% of their first half shots). Not a single player from Arkansas State hit more than one shot from the field in the first half. The Red Wolves sunk all of five buckets in 20 minutes. Meanwhile, JMU’s Noah Freidel led all scorers with 9 points.

The second half didn’t start much better. The Red Wolves had three buckets after 7 minutes, with the Dukes widening their lead to 44-28. A three from Derrian Ford and a traditional three point play from Hicks gave the Red Wolves some life, but a JMU bucket followed by a Red Wolves turnover iced the momentum.

The Red Wolves had another burst with 12 minutes left in the half, with Dominguez and Ford nailing big threes. But JMU kept countering with buckets of their own, and Dominguez’s bum ankle gave out with nine minutes left, momentarily sending him to the locker room. Dominguez would return after Hicks was shaken up.

The Red Wolves suddenly got hot. Ultimately, the Red Wolves would shoot better than 57% the second half. A Taryn Todd three closed the gap to 69-61 with a minute and change on the clock. A hard fought series of points from Fields, Ford and Hicks, helped A-State reduce the lead down to four with under :15 left.

“Sometimes we got to get punched in the mouth to start playing hard,” said Hicks when asked about the second-half turnaround. “And it shouldn’t be that way,”

But there just wasn’t enough time on the clock to make up for the 1-16 shooting to start the game. Ultimately, the Dukes were more consistent beneath the rim, rarely missing in the paint while matching the Red Wolves point for point whenever Arkansas State flashed moments of heat. The Red Wolves made it interesting in the end, but the first half proved terminally toxic.

“We missed wide open shot after wide open shot,” said Coach Hodgson regarding the first half. “If we make those wide open shots, we’d be talking about a win.

PHOTO CREDITS: all me baby