Virginia, George Mason, JMU claim victories

Thursday's results:

Click here for more on Thursday's Richmond-VCU thriller.

Virginia 65, Indiana 49: Weird game. The Cavaliers led 25-9 late in the first half, but the Hoosiers closed with a 13-0 run and pulled even at 27 early in the second half before Virginia separated again. Ataira Franklin had a season-high 16 points and Ariana Moorer added 13, but as has often been the case, Virginia's offense was at times ragged and mistake-prone. Fortunately, for the fifth time this season, the Cavs (6-2) held an opponent to 49 points or less. Defense wins games, right?

Love how Virginia includes a page of quotes with the home game stories. Definitely worth wading through.

The ACC and Big Ten split in the overall ACC/Big Ten Challenge standings with each league getting 6 victories. Along with Virginia, the ACC's other winners were Maryland (74-65 over Michigan), Georgia Tech (73-55 over Nebraska), Duke (64-55 over Purdue), Miami (76-60 over Michigan State) and Wake Forest (82-65 over Minnesota).

James Madison 62, Liberty 58: Boston College transfer Jasmine Gill picked a good night to have her breakout game with the Dukes. On a night when the Dukes were apparently feeling the effects of not having a game since Nov. 20, Gill put JMU on her back with a career-high tying 24 points. Tarik Hislop added 20 and the Dukes held on to remain undefeated (5-0) while improving to 3-0 in road games.

As the score suggests, Liberty (2-4) acquitted itself well in defeat. Avery Warley had 18 points and Devon Brown, playing her first game since the death of her mother, Jennifer Brown, on Nov. 22, added 13 points and is now just 7 shy of 1,000 for her career. But Lady Flames coach Carey Green estimated that Liberty missed about 20 layups (some contested).

George Mason 55, American 52: Red-hot Taleia Moton lit up the Minutewomen for a career-high 32 points, the third time in four games the redshirt junior has scored at least 30. And this was a night in which the Patriots needed Moton to get hers as star forward Amber Easter sat out after apparently sustaining an injury in the Patriots victory over UNC Asheville last week. Easter's absence didn't appear to have a negative effect on Mason's defense, though, as the Patriots were as stingy as usual in holding UMass to 36 percent shooting.
The Patriots(5-1) have now won five straight and are looking forward to Sunday's CAA opener at home against long-time nemesis Old Dominion. "We owe them one," Moton said in a video posted on the team's website. "And we're going to show them that on Sunday."