Days after beating No. 4 Michigan State in OT, James Madison pulls off another improbable OT win

It’s unequivocal: James Madison is the most entertaining team of the first week of the 2023-24 men’s college basketball season.

The Dukes pulled a massive upset with a 79-76 victory at Michigan State on Monday and squeaked out a 113-108 double-overtime win at Kent State on Thursday after an incredible effort by Noah Freidel at the end of regulation.

Kent State’s Chris Payton Jr. made two free throws with 3.8 seconds left in the second half to give the Golden Flashes an 89-84 lead. After Payton’s second free throw, Julien Wooden threw the inbounds pass down the court to Freidel and Freidel hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to two with 1.2 seconds to go.

The Golden Flashes then gave James Madison a gift. As Kent State lined up to inbound the ball, Mike Bekelja was called for an offensive foul for pushing off a James Madison defender before sprinting up the court.

That gave JMU the chance to inbound the ball underneath the Kent State basket and the Dukes ran a perfect play to free Freidel for a wide-open layup as time expired.

Here’s how the entire sequence unfolded.

Both teams scored 12 points in the first overtime period as Kent State sent the game to a second extra period on Jalen Sullinger’s 3-pointer with 10 seconds to go. James Madison then pulled away in the second overtime on four free throws by Xavier Brown in the final 24 seconds.

Sullinger led all scorers with 30 points, while Freidel had 15 points before fouling out in overtime. Freidel scored seven in the Dukes’ overtime win over Michigan State as Terrence Edwards Jr. had 24 and T.J. Bickerstaff had 21 for JMU. Bickerstaff is the grandson of longtime NBA coach and executive Bernie Bickerstaff.