Miami (Ohio) is still perfect, but the No. 21 RedHawks nearly lost their title as the lone unbeaten team in Division I men’s college basketball Friday night in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
In the game’s waning seconds, freshman guard Trey Perry muscled through the paint to get up a left-handed layup that hit the rim twice before dropping in for the go-ahead basket with 0.4 seconds remaining.
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That secured Miami’s 69-67 win over Western Michigan.
The Redhawks (29-0, 16-0 MAC) not only overcame a late deficit but also saw head coach Travis Steele lose his temper earlier in the game.
At the end of the first half against Western Michigan (10-19, 4-12), a disgruntled Steele hurled words. He was assessed a technical, much to his dismay, and ultimately had to be held back by his own staff as he berated the officials. His outburst culminated in him sending a speaker flying as he entered the tunnel toward the locker room.
But Steele cooled off, and his RedHawks bounced back from trailing at the half for the sixth time this season — and then from falling behind by nine points with 6:38 to go — to defeat the Broncos.
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Perry’s heroic play completed a short-handed comeback. Miami was down guards Luke Skaljac and Evan Ipsaro, plus Peter Suder — who fouled out with a team-high 18 points with 7:03 left — and still found a way to pull through in the clutch, just as it has all season, its best in program history.
Almar Atlason, a junior forward who transferred in from Bradley and is originally from ReykjavÃk, Iceland, netted a pair of 3-pointers down the stretch, including one that he turned into a 4-point play after being fouled. He finished with 16 points and a trio of triples.
Senior forward Antwone Woolfolk put the RedHawks ahead with 1:45 on the clock, and then Perry answered after Western Michigan’s Justice Williams hit a game-tying jumper.
“Playing to win. He’s fiery. He’s a competitor. He’s built for those moments, man,” Steele said of Perry in a postgame interview with CBS Sports.
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“So we put the ball in his hands there at the end. I told him to try to get to the rim, not settle, which he did. He got right to that left hand. … He can finish either hand just equally as well.”
That versatility served him well and put a bow on his 14-point effort. It also preserved Miami’s unbeaten streak, as it tries to continue its push toward MAC supremacy and its first trip to the NCAA tournament since 2007.
As for that technical Steele picked up at the end of the first half?
“Listen, I don’t even know how I got that technical,” he told CBS Sports. “I’m still trying to figure that one out, but that really upset me. And I can’t do that. Can’t get technical fouls. The margin for error is so small, and I got to be better.
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“We’re fine. We were down at the half, but we didn’t play well. Stay with it. Stay in the moment. Got to win with our defense if we’re going to have a chance to win this game. And that’s what our guys did.”