HARRISONBURG - Justin Thorpe threw one touchdown pass and ran for another, helping James Madison score the game’s first 22 points en route to a 22-14 win over Maine yesterday. Thorpe was 9 for 13 with 133 yards and two interceptions for the Dukes ( 2-4 CAA, 4-5), and he added 83 yards rushing on 17 carries. The James Madison quarterback rushed for a 42-yard touchdown to put the Dukes up 9-0 midway through the second quarter after a getting a safety earlier in the frame. Dixon Wright kicked field goals of 23 and 38 yards to put the Dukes up 15-0 with 16 seconds before halftime.

Justin Thorpe ran for one touchdown and threw for another while James Madison’s defense registered eight sacks as the Dukes defeated Delaware 20-8 on Saturday.

The Colonial Athletic Association put two teams in the NCAA basketball tournament in 1986, 2006 and ‘07. George Mason coach Jim Larranaga believes this could be the year the conference tops those high-water marks. “This has the potential of being the best year in league history—and similar to the Missouri Valley’s run in 2005-06,“ Larranaga said at yesterday’s media day. “In that year, everybody talked about how deep that league was, and they got four teams in the tournament. I think the CAA coaches and players are feeling that this is our year to do the same thing.“

William and Mary coach Jimmye Laycock calls the national exposure the fifth-ranked Tribe will get from Saturday’s televised game (Versus Network) at No.2 Villanova “kind of an extra thing.“ He’s more concerned about the test the Tribe will get from the Wildcats. William and Mary, 1-0 in the Colonial Athletic Association and 4-0 overall, hasn’t beaten Villanova (1-0, 4-0) in the past four meetings.

William and Mary traditionally has been known for its offensive prowess. While that hasn’t changed, the Tribe’s defense is earning a solid reputation this season. William and Mary (3-0), ranked fifth by The Sports Network, goes into its Colonial Athletic Association opener against visiting Delaware (2-1) Saturday allowing just 14.3 points per game. That ranks 19th in the Football Championship Subdivision.

William and Mary football coach Jimmye Laycock didn’t really address the topic of a letdown against Central Connecticut State last week. The Tribe upset Virginia 26-14 in its opener. While Laycock thought his team played “OK” against Central Connecticut State, it was able to roll 33-14. “Well, we went back and practiced,“ he said. “I don’t know if we did anything different than we would have done if we had not won at Virginia. . . . I thought our guys handled it very, very well.

James Madison’s Montpelier will host its quarterly “Big Woods Walk,“ a guided tour of the James Madison Landmark Forest on Sunday, July 12, at 2 p.m. Montpelier’s horticulturist, Sandy Mundrinich, will guide visitors through a 90-minute journey of the 200-acre old-growth forest, also known as the Big Woods. Participants should meet in the visitor center at 2 p.m.

In the estimation of the Sporting News, the University of Richmond’s 2009 football team will end this coming season where it finished last year: on top of the Football Championship Subdivision. The Spiders will be the Sporting News’ preseason No. 1 when the preseason issue appears on newsstands this summer. UR captured the 2008 FCS title by beating Montana 24-7 in the championship game, though the Spiders finished the regular season as the third-place team in the six-member Colonial Athletic Association South Division.

Richmond triumphs on late shot by Shells FG with 2 seconds left caps her 19-point day in win over JMU Brittani Shells had played the scene in her head a million times. Game’s on the line. She takes the inbounds pass, then squares up near the top of the key against the girl assigned to stop her. The hopes and dreams of her coaches, her teammates, and University of Richmond women’s basketball faithful are riding on her skill and cunning.

Mike Morrison averaged 4 blocked shots in high school in Florida. He’s averaging less than half a block as a college freshman at George Mason. “In high schools, blocks came a lot easier,“ he said. “Now they’re difficult.“ Didn’t seem that way last night. In a game against James Madison in which baskets were at a premium, the long-armed, 6-9 reserve forward tilted things Mason’s way with his defense.

With just seconds left in the game, James Madison University backup guard Scooter Renkin got out of a jam underneath the basket with a wraparound pass to a teammate. That brought a roar from the JMU bench, where the starters were located. They laughed, applauded and stood to cheer their teammates. The JMU starters were watching from the sideline because they had the opening-round game of the Colonial Athletic Association game against William and Mary well in hand.

Kyle Swanston David Schneider   When: 6 p.m. Radio: WXGI (950); WCLM (1450); Sirius Satellite Radio (Ch. 126)
  Projected starting lineups:
  Head-to-head : JMU swept the series, 74-65 at William and Mary and 76-67 in Harrisonburg.
  Notable: William and Mary had beaten JMU eight consecutive times before this season. The last time the teams met in the CAA tournament was 2005, when William and Mary won 68-54. The Dukes have been the walking wounded this season. Abdulai Jalloh, a senior guard, suffered a shoulder injury early in the season and has not played since. Senior power forward Juwann James missed 11 games with pericarditis. He now comes off the bench and leads the team in scoring at 15.8. Freshman point guard Devon Moore has an injured wrist and might not play in the tournament. Tribe freshman Quinn McDowell scored 20 against JMU in Harrisonburg. Junior forward Danny Sumner has averaged 14.3 points in the past four meetings with JMU. William and Mary made 11 3-point field goals against JMU on Feb. 14. William and Mary coach Tony Shaver is 9-4 vs. JMU.

a closer look Things happen to basketball players. Ankles get twisted and sprained. Fingers get jammed. Noses get broken. Knees buckle and ligaments tear. Highly-conditioned young athletes are not supposed to have heart problems. And that’s what surprised and shocked Juwann James and his coach, Matt Brady. James, a 6-6, 225-pound senior forward for the James Madison Dukes, has missed 11 games this season as a result of pericarditis, an inflammation of the pericardium, a membrane that surrounds the heart.

If Virginia Commonwealth goes on to claim its third straight regular-season title in the Colonial Athletic Association, it may put a star beside this contest. Pushed to the limit by game but undermanned James Madison, the Rams found a way to win a game they very well could have lost.

The way the students swarmed the court after James Madison beat George Mason on Saturday, you would have thought the Dukes had done something momentous. Maybe they did. JMU fans have been waiting for a revival of a basketball program that once mingled among the hierarchy of the Colonial Athletic Association. They may have found optimism in first-year coach Matt Brady.