Tuesday\u2019s 74-72 victory over Toledo<\/a>, in which the Rockets turned it over on their potential game-tying possession with seconds left. That victory, the RedHawks\u2019 latest close call, made Miami the fourth team in the last 35 years to win its first 30 games.<\/p>\nAnd, just as importantly, it set up Friday\u2019s historic showdown at rival Ohio, a place Miami hadn\u2019t won since 2011.<\/p>\n
Leading the way for the RedHawks was junior Eian Elmer, who had a career-high 32 points and 12 rebounds, and who regularly had an answer for the Bobcats anytime they tried taking control of the game. Freshman Trey Perry had 21 points off the bench, including a key layup with under two minutes in overtime, while sophomore Brant Byers chipped in 15 and seven boards.<\/p>\n
Jackson Paveletzke, Ohio\u2019s leading scorer, set a new career-high with 37 points, and forward Javan Simmons \u2014 the beneficiary of Miami\u2019s three technicals, as well as an additional Flagrant-1 foul on Almar Atlason \u2014 had 30 points and nine rebounds before fouling out with 4.7 seconds remaining in overtime.<\/p>\n
If not for Miami\u2019s multiple technical fouls, the RedHawks probably would have led by double-digits for most of the second half. Instead, Ohio made the most of those opportunities and kept clawing back, eventually tying the game with just over six minutes left on a deep 3-pointer from AJ Sheldon. That shot was emblematic of the Bobcats\u2019 hot perimeter shooting all night, as a team that averages under seven 3-pointers a game instead finished with 14, tied for its most in a game this season.<\/p>\n
Miami briefly extended its lead thereafter, but Ohio never went away, re-tying the game at 100 on Simmons\u2019 layup with 40 seconds remaining. Miami\u2019s Luke Skaljac got off a corner 3 with 17 seconds left, but missed, setting up a potential game-winning possession for the Bobcats. However, Paveletzke missed a floater with two seconds left that sent the game to a thrilling overtime.<\/p>\n
The teams traded baskets most of the extra period, fitting for a game that wound up with 17 lead changes. Still, Simmons\u2019 putback with 25.9 seconds left in overtime gave Ohio a 108-107 lead, putting Miami back in the pressure cooker.<\/p>\n
That, though, is clearly where the RedHawks thrive, as leading scorer Peter Suder immediately followed that play up by driving, absorbing a foul \u2014 and calmly hitting two free throws to re-establish Miami\u2019s 109-108 lead.<\/p>\n
Paveletzke drove straight down the middle of the court for a would-be game-winner \u2026 but Suder, who struggled offensively most of the night, met him at the rim and went straight up defensively, forcing Paveletzke\u2019s running layup to clink off the front rim. The RedHawks collected the rebound from there, sending Justin Kirby \u2014 the team\u2019s best free-throw shooter at 83.9 percent \u2014 to the free-throw line, for Miami\u2019s two most important free throws all season.<\/p>\n
Kirby missed the first and made the second, giving Miami a two-point cushion. And that proved just enough, as Paveletzke\u2019s last-ditch 3 at the buzzer fell incomplete.<\/p>\n
Following the final buzzer, several Miami players appeared to taunt Ohio fans and players near midcourt, briefly escalating tensions before the teams were separated. As the RedHawks exited the floor, items were thrown toward Steele from the stands. Referees also briefly stopped the game in the second half after an object was thrown from the stands toward Steele while he was standing on the sideline.<\/p>\n
Given the way Miami\u2019s historic season has unfolded, could it have happened any other way?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to peak at the right time here in March,\u201d Steele said. \u201cI love coaching our group. I\u2019m extremely blessed to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"History was never going to come easy. Especially for the last undefeated team in Division I men\u2019s college…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2537,123,23531,125,124,23337],"class_list":["post-181787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-mens-college-basketball","tag-miami","tag-miami-oh-redhawks","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-ohio-bobcats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}