FARMVILLE, Va. – It was electric.

The scene: Commonwealth foe James Madison in the building. A jammed student section that never sat down from tip to buzzer. Alumni on campus for the start of Homecoming Weekend shoulder-to-shoulder in the seats.

And a motivated, freewheeling Lancer men's basketball team ready for the moment.

Propelled by an atmosphere that felt more like a March evening with the season on the line than an early-season November contest, the Lancers took down the visiting Dukes, 82-72 on Wednesday night in Farmville.

With the win, in JPB tradition. The players took a lap around the arena, slapping hands with jubilant—and hoarse— students, alumni, and Lancer fans far and wide.

"I'm going to buy pizzas and have the team hand them out tomorrow to our students as a thank you for tonight," said Head Coach Ronnie Thomas. "The students brought us to life. Whenever JMU made a run, the students were there to pull us back. Everyone cares so much and lifted us in those key moments. They stayed with us the entire game, and we're going to need that all season."

That energy is easy to come by when every player dressed in blue-and-white is contributing. Showcasing their depth, ten Lancers put points on the scoreboard, with five in double-figures. Johan Nziemi, Elijah Tucker, Jacoi Hutchinson, and Redd Thompson Jr. paced the Lancers with twelve points each. Alphonzo 'Fats' Billups III chipped in 10. Elijah Jones added eight and Emanuel Richards scored seven.

"We talk a lot about sacrifice," said Thomas. "Sometimes that's minutes, sometimes that's shots, but it's all very even and balanced. When you buy into that, you have to trust the people around you. I told them in the huddle tonight, this is where we start to trust each other. And they are really starting to do that."

The frenzy of the student section matched the frenetic pace of the opening minutes. Both teams traded leads, punctuated by back-to-back threes from veteran guards Emanuel Richards and Johan Nziemi. Over the opening ten minutes of the first half, neither team led by more than three.

The packed student section, half clad in blue and half in white for the stripe out game, never left their feet, exploding with each Lancer bucket, defensive stop, and blow of the whistle. Whenever the purple-clad Dukes touched the ball, they erupted in chants of "DE-FENSE! DE-FENSE!"

It wasn't until late in the first half when the Lancers, spurred by the stellar play of Billups, put some daylight between themselves and JMU. With five minutes left in the opening period, Billups intercepted a pass and flew through the air like a 757 airliner, slamming a one-handed jam right in front of the student crowd that turned stomps into jumps and cheers into wild expressions of joy as the Lancers went into the half up 44-35.

"It was definitely a team win," said Billups, whose stat line was full of crooked numbers: four rebounds, ten points, three assists, and a steal. "We preach passing and taking care of each other. It's always about the next play, that's the mentality."

Both the Lancers and the Dukes have established themselves in recent years as mid-major powerhouses in the Commonwealth. Both have posted multiple 20-win seasons and made NCAA Tournament appearances in the last five years.

The halftime break didn't slow the Lancers or the Dukes down. The opening five minutes of the second were just as fast-paced as the first half: every shot and defensive stop that brought the blue-and-white closer to victory seemed more important than the last. Shots seemed to linger in the air, the crowd anticipating an eruption with the snap of a net. The lead was almost immediately stretched to 12.

Head coach Ronnie Thomas was the picture of an animated coach, flying up and down the sidelines with fist pumps reminiscent of a Tiger Woods Masters-winning putt.

While the Dukes came to life late in the second on the backs of guards Bradley Douglas and Cliff Davis, the lead was too much to overcome in the closing minutes.

The next context for the Longwood men's team is a sold-out Homecoming Weekend matchup against Binghamton on Saturday, Nov. 15 at 3 p.m.
 
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