{"id":197565,"date":"2026-03-19T09:37:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T09:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197565\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T09:37:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T09:37:17","slug":"miami-ohio-rout-smu-in-first-four-as-prairie-view-make-ncaa-tournament-history-ncaa-tournament-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197565\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami (Ohio) rout SMU in First Four as Prairie View make NCAA Tournament history | NCAA Tournament 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eian Elmer scored 22 points and Miami (Ohio) beat SMU 89-79 on Wednesday night in the First Four for their first NCAA Tournament<\/a> victory in 27 years.<\/p>\n

Elmer went 6 of 9 from three-point range as the 11th-seeded RedHawks (32-1), undefeated during the regular season, advanced in the Midwest Region to play No 6 seed Tennessee.<\/p>\n

Brant Byers added 19 points, including four threes, and Luke Skaljac had 17 points for Miami, making their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2007. The RedHawks finished 16 of 41 from three-point range.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe message I gave our guys before the game was they should leave no doubt with who the more attacking team was,\u201d Miami (Ohio) coach Travis Steele said. \u201cI thought that was very evident from the jump ball all the way to the end of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jaden Toombs led SMU (20-14) with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Jaron Pierre Jr scored 18 points and Boopie Miller had 15 for the Mustangs, who reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in nine years. They\u2019re still looking for their first victory in the event since 1988.<\/p>\n

Miami went 31-0 during a captivating regular season \u2013 the only Division I team to go unbeaten in 2025-26 and just the nation\u2019s eighth undefeated regular season in the past 50 years.<\/p>\n

But the RedHawks lost their MAC Tournament opener to UMass, putting their NCAA Tournament hopes in jeopardy because of a schedule that ranked 339th in overall strength and featured no Quadrant 1 games.<\/p>\n

Some analysts and critics questioned whether they belonged in the field with an at-large bid, but Miami silenced some skeptics Wednesday with a rousing victory over an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not really focused on proving whether we belong, honestly,\u201d Elmer said. \u201cEverybody in the locker room thinks we do. I just think if anything we\u2019re just going to go out there, play our hardest and have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elmer had 14 points and went 4 of 6 from three-point range in the first half. Byers hit back-to-back threes to give Miami an 11-point lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey put five guys on the court that can shoot the three, so they\u2019re hard to guard,\u201d SMU coach Andy Enfield said. \u201cWe outscored them in the paint 46-20 tonight, which was our game plan to really try to score the ball in the lane.\u201d<\/p>\n

SMU missed its first seven three-point attempts before Pierre connected with 7:02 remaining in the first half. The Mustangs went 5 of 19 from long distance.<\/p>\n

Almar Atlason hit a pair of threes to give the RedHawks a 63-50 advantage early in the second half. He scored 12 points.<\/p>\n

Skaljac\u2019s transition three extended Miami\u2019s lead to 71-57.<\/p>\n

SMU had a size advantage, but foul trouble negated some of that. Mustangs 7ft 2in center Samet Yigitoglu fouled out with 1:31 remaining. He finished with eight points and six rebounds.<\/p>\n

The undersized RedHawks matched SMU with 35 rebounds and 17 second-chance points.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, our group is uber-confident,\u201d Steele said. \u201cWe know we belong. I told our guys afterwards, man, I\u2019m happy, but the job is not finished. We want to continue to advance in this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

No 16 Prairie View A&M 67, No 16 Lehigh 55<\/p>\n

Dontae Horne scored 25 points and Cory Wells had 19 as Prairie View A&M earned their first NCAA Tournament victory, 67-55 over Lehigh on Wednesday night in the First Four.<\/p>\n

Lance Williams added 10 points for the Panthers (19-17), who are making their third tournament appearance. They advance as the No. 16 seed in the South Region to face top seed and defending national champion Florida on Friday in Tampa, Florida.<\/p>\n

Lehigh leading scorer Nasir Whitlock went scoreless for more than 26 minutes and finished with five points. He was 2-of-15 shooting.<\/p>\n

The last time Whitlock did not reach double figures was on 9 November, when he had two points in a 69-47 loss at West Virginia.<\/p>\n

Hank Alvey led Lehigh (18-17) with 23 points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eian Elmer scored 22 points and Miami (Ohio) beat SMU 89-79 on Wednesday night in the First Four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-197565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197565","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=197565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}