NASSAU, Bahamas – The Northern Kentucky men's basketball team is moving on to the semifinals of The Islands of the Bahamas Showcase with an 87-78 win over JMU on Friday evening.
 
STATS LEADERS

• Lavone Holland II led all scorers with 24 points. He also contributed five assists and three rebounds.
• Jalen Tate and Jordan Garnett each chipped in 15 points.
• Carson Williams and Drew McDonald added 12 and 11 points, respectively. Williams also had seven rebounds in the game.

 
TURNING POINT

• NKU took the lead with 18:12 remaining in the first half, and the Norse never trailed again in the game. A 9-0 run in the early part of the first half helped NKU build a 13-point lead. The Norse led by double digits for most of the contest, but JMU did cut the Norse lead to just six points with 41 seconds left.

 
FIRST-HALF SUMMARY

• The Norse jumped out to a 21-8 lead with 12:26 remaining in the half. NKU went on a 9-0 run beginning at the 14:57 minute mark to extend the lead.  
• Garnett scored nine points in the first 7:05 of the period on 3-of-3 shooting from both the floor and free throw line.
• NKU didn't allow JMU to hit a field goal for a stretch of 11:08. The Dukes' Stuckey Mosley made a layup at 15:19, and the Dukes were unable to hit another field goal until Darius Banks' layup at 4:11. JMU went 0-for-16 from the floor during that time period.
• The Norse closed the half on an 8-0 run to take a 44-24 lead into the break.
• NKU held JMU to 7-of-33 (21.2%) shooting from the floor and 0-of-9 from the three-point line.
• The Norse shot 14-of-23 (60.9%) from the field during the period and had 20 points in the paint.

 
SECOND-HALF SUMMARY

• Holland II hit two 3-pointers within the first 3:33 of the half.
• NKU was ahead by 24 points, but JMU went on a 7-0 run beginning at 13:45 in the half to cut the deficit to 63-46.
• The Dukes outscored the Norse 18-9 in the final 6:41 of the game and got NKU's lead down to just six points with 41 seconds to play. But the Norse had built a large enough cushion and converted on their free throws to hang on for the 87-78 win.
• JMU shot 18-of-29 (62.1%) from the floor and 8-of-13 (61.5%) from the three-point line in the half.
• NKU was 9-of-25 (36.0%) on field goals and 3-of-11 (27.3%) behind the arc during the period.

 
GAME NOTES

• The Norse had five players score in double figures.
• NKU finished the game 23-of-48 (47.9%) from the floor.
• The Norse scored 25 points off of 17 JMU turnovers. NKU also had seven steals in the contest.
• Free throws were key to the Norse victory, as NKU shot 34-of-48 (70.8%) from the charity stripe in the contest.

NEXT UP

• NKU will play the winner of the Iona/Weber State game on Saturday, Nov. 18 at 8 p.m. ET.