’Hawks strike early, don’t bend

Junior guard Courtney Osborn sinks 25 in 81-56 rout of Massachusetts.

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1:15 AM Sunday, November 20, 2011

By Rick Cassano

Staff Writer

OXFORD — The hands were hot. The defense was strong. And all was right in Miami University’s women’s basketball world.

The RedHawks gave Massachusetts an 81-56 whipping at Millett Hall on Saturday afternoon, with junior guard Courtney Osborn firing in 25 points and five treys.

“What we’re really happy about is, we built a lead and sustained it,” said Osborn, who also collected five assists and three steals. “In the past, we’ve let teams come back. This time, we didn’t let them come back. We weathered their storm and continued to build our lead.”

Miami (2-1) doubled the Minutewomen (1-2) by an 18-9 margin in the opening 10 minutes and never trailed before a home-opener crowd of 618.

Hannah Robertson scored 14 points and Maggie Boyer added 13 for MU, which shot 53.7 percent from the floor. Kelsey Simon chipped in a career-high seven points.

“We didn’t play defense the way we have been practicing,” UMass coach Sharon Dawley said. “On a good day, we play transition defense. On a good day, we defend shooters a lot better. For some reason we kept getting stuck under screens, and we don’t go under screens.

“They’re going to win a boatload of games,” she added of the RedHawks. “I’m just upset that we didn’t bring much today. We didn’t give them a whole lot of fight.”

Miami coach Maria Fantanarosa liked much of what she saw from her squad, which posted a 56-49 win over Marshall earlier this week after opening the year with a 70-36 loss to Temple.

“I’m really excited about our defense continuing to take steps,” Fantanarosa said. “That’s been a focus for us. Tonight, it definitely took pressure off our offense. I thought there was good ball movement.”

The backcourt trio of Osborn, Boyer and Robertson combined to hit 21-of-32 field goals. Osborn entered the contest shooting 25.0 percent from the floor. Boyer’s percentage was 8.3 (1-for-12).

“My teammates set a lot of great screens and got me wide open,” Osborn said. “They did all the stuff that doesn’t appear on the stat sheet. I had the easy job of knocking down the shot.”

Boyer, a senior, said she didn’t realize her shooting percentage was below 10 percent.

“You shoot to make it,” Boyer said. “Just play the game and let the game come to you.”

Fantanarosa wasn’t worried about either player’s offense. “They’re flat-out scorers. They’re both competitive,” the 14th-year MU coach said. “For their stats to be skewed by a good Temple team, it doesn’t matter.”

UMass got double-digit scoring from Shakia Robinson (18), Jasmine Watson (14) and Emilie Teuscher (10). The visitors shot 32.3 percent from the floor and committed 20 turnovers, but did win the rebounding battle 37-35.

The RedHawks return to action at home Tuesday night against Indiana.

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