Elon MBB Phoenix Sweeps Season Series Against JMU To Clinch Third Straight Road Win

ELON, N.C. – Elon University men’s basketball defeated JMU, 70-62, on Thursday, Feb. 20, to clinch its third consecutive road victory behind a 14-5 second half run.

BOX SCORE | RESULTS

Freshman guard Hunter McIntosh scored a career-high 27 points, while making a career-high six threes to lead the Phoenix to a win. Senior guard Marcus Sheffield supplied 15 points and six rebounds on the evening.

JMU guard Matt Lewis scored 23 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead the Dukes in the loss.

HIGHLIGHTS
With Elon up by just a point with 8:35 remaining in the second half, Hunter Woods drilled a triple to spark a 14-5 Phoenix run over the next five minutes. After a quick basket by JMU cut Elon’s lead back down to two, Simon Wright faked out a Dukes defender and dropped in a sweet floater to extend the lead back to four. Shortly after, back-to-back threes by McIntosh and Kris Wooten extended the Phoenix’s lead to eight with just over six minutes remaining in the contest. Chuck Hannah capped the burst with two quick scores that gave Elon its largest lead of the game (11) with 3:37 left to play.

From there, JMU went on a 9-2 run of its own to trim the Phoenix’s lead to 62-58 with 1:10 remaining in the game. Solid shooting from the free throw line secured the win for the Phoenix, as the team knocked down eight of its 11 attempts from the charity stripe in the final minute of the contest to seal the victory.

Trailing by six with three minutes remaining in the first half, McIntosh drained a three pointer that ignited a 9-3 Elon spurt. Moments later, Sheffield followed with a triple of his own that tied the game at 31-31. The next trip down the floor, JMU’s Lewis knocked down a three to put the Dukes back on top. Shortly after, McIntosh answered with another triple that knotted the game up at 34-34 with 46 seconds remaining in the opening half. Elon and JMU entered the break with the score tied at 34.

NOTES
– Elon has now won five of its last six games, including three straight victories on the road
– The Phoenix knocked down 11 three-pointers, and held a 36-32 advantage on the glass
– Elon posted 15+ assists for the third consecutive game
– With his 15 points tonight, Sheffield became Elon’s Division I Single-Season All-Time leading scorer (533 points), passing Tyler Seibring (18-19) and Brendan Rowell (00-01) who each scored 527 points respectively.
– Sheffield’s has now scored double-digits in 18 consecutive games, and 26 times overall this season
– McIntosh’s 27 points on the night secured his third straight game scoring double-figures, and his 16th overall this season
– McIntosh’s six made triples tonight moved him to second place on the All-Time Freshman three pointers list with 63, and brought him to within eight of the Top-10 in a single season in Elon history.
– With tonight’s win, the Phoenix secured a season sweep of JMU and moved to 5-1 in the month of February.

UP NEXT
Elon will remain on the road on Saturday, Feb. 22, to continue CAA play against Towson. That matchup is slated for 2 p.m. in Towson, Md., and will be streamed live on FloSports.