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HARRISONBURG, Va., Feb. 6, 2011 - James Madison (17-6, 10-1 CAA) held off a furious second-half charge to take down Old Dominion (15-7, 9-2) 67-58 in Colonial Athletic Association women's basketball on Sunday at the JMU Convocation Center.

JMU's victory over the Monarchs, combined with North Carolina Wilmington's 76-67 loss at Georgia State, put the Dukes in sole possession of first place in the CAA.  ODU and UNCW are tied for second at 9-2, while Virginia Commonwealth is in fourth at 8-3.

The game attracted a season-high 6,099 fans, the second-highest home attendance in the program's history.  The JMU home attendance record is 6,500, set against Old Dominion on Jan. 17, 1997.

Senior guard Dawn Evans (Clarksville, Tenn./Northeast) scored a game-high 25 points and tallied six assists to lead the Dukes, while sophomore guard Tarik Hislop (Silver Spring, Md./Paint Branch) had 16 points of her own.  Senior center Lauren Jimenez (North Bergen, N.J./North Bergen) pulled down a team-high nine rebounds for JMU and recorded a career-high four steals.

After the Monarchs took a 17-13 lead on a layup by junior center/forward Tia Lewis (Poulan, Ga./Worth County) at the 8:14 mark in the first half, JMU put together a 19-4 run to go into halftime up 32-21.

After the break, the Dukes maintained their lead, going up 55-36 on a jumper by redshirt junior forward Lauren Whitehurst (Chesapeake, Va./Indian River) with 10:57 to play.

However, over a span of 7:42, ODU put together a 20-6 run, getting points from five different players and cutting JMU's lead to 62-58 on a layup by Lewis with 2:00 left in the game.

The basket would be the Monarchs' last points of the game as Evans, Hislop and Whitehurst all hit free throws over the last minute to achieve the final margin.

Lewis led the way for ODU, scoring a team-high 18 points.  Senior guard Kquanise Byrd (St. Petersburg, Fla./Lakewood) scored 12 points for the Monarchs, and senior guard/forward Shadasia Green (Paterson, N.J./Eastside) pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds.

It was the Dukes' seventh straight victory and eighth straight win at the Convocation Center, as well as their 11th victory in their last 12 contests.  ODU saw its winning streak end at four games.  The Monarchs entered the game having won nine of their last 10 games.

"The last 10 minutes of the first half and the first part of second, we played extremely well on the defensive end, which sparked some of our offense," said JMU Head Coach Kenny Brooks. 

"They're a good basketball team.  Losing a (19-point) lead, a lot of that was me, playing kids too many minutes.  We normally play eight or nine, and we didn't have Kiara Francisco (back) or Rachel Connely (illness) (so) today we played seven.

"First place doesn't matter. It's (early) February.  It was big because it was a home game.  You have to win games at home, (especially) big games like this."