PHILADELPHIA – The College of Charleston women's basketball team (7-24) were within two possessions of the No. 2 seeded James Madison Dukes (21-9) in the second half of Thursday's CAA Quarterfinal matchup, but JMU was able to hold on and pull away late for an 81-66 win to end the Cougars' tournament run.
 
• The Dukes seized the early advantage in the game by peeling off a 9-0 run to get things started. Though JMU led by as many as 11 in the opening quarter, two early Cailin Dorsey threes were able to keep the Cougars afloat. Threes were the story of the game for the Cougars, who shot 9 of 18 from deep for the game and 7 of 9 in the first half alone. Dorsey finished a perfect 4 of 4 from deep, while Deja Ford contributed three of her own.
 
• CofC's three-point shooting kept them in the game amid a strong JMU opening charge, going into the locker room down just nine points (43-34). With the Dukes doubling down on defending the perimeter in the second half, things opened up in the interior for Tanisha Brown to take things over. The senior forward played a heroic game in her swan song performance, scoring 19 points and pulling down 15 rebounds for the second consecutive game, going 8 of 13 from the field. Brown finished her CofC career with one of the best rebounding seasons in the school's NCAA Division I Era, with 270 rebounds (2^nd), 103 offensive rebounds (4^th) and 167 defensive rebounds (4^th).
 
• CofC kept inching closer and closer in the game, actually pulling within four points when Dorsey sunk her fourth three of the game midway through the third to make it 49-45. However, the Dukes took a timeout to settle things down and proceeded to regain control by way of a 9-1 run toward the end of the quarter. Improbably, despite several promising Cougar runs throughout the game, JMU managed to outscore the Cougars in each quarter.
 
• The Cougars played an up-tempo game that was able to burn the Dukes in transition several times. CofC had three more assists than the Dukes with 20, with Shiclasia Brown claiming seven of them, which set a new CofC CAA Tournament record. The New York native closed out her Charleston career with the fifth-most single-season assists (140) in the CofC NCAA Division I Era, and logged the third-highest amount of minutes (1122) with a jaw-dropping average of 36.2 per game.
 
• James Madison ultimately won the game due to more offensive opportunities, taking nine more shots from the field and a whopping 13 more shots from the line than the Cougars. They also benefited from getting the Cougars into early foul trouble, with four Cougars having at least two fouls at half, and Darien Huff picking up three in the first 20 minutes. On an individual level, Kelly Koshuta (25-8-3, 2 Stl) and Lexie Barrier (24-6-4, 10-14 FG) gave the Dukes the edge in the game.