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Miami busts out its backups in win against SE Missouri State

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By Pete Conrad, Staff Writer 1:09 AM Sunday, February 21, 2010

OXFORD — There wasn’t any bracket busting going on at Millett Hall on Saturday, Feb. 20. Not in a game featuring two teams with no chance at receiving an at-large berth to the NCAA tournament.

But the ESPN BracketBuster game did give the Miami RedHawks a much-needed boost in morale after they used it to beat the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks 69-53 and snap a two-game losing streak.

“It’s great for us,” said Miami senior Adam Fletcher. “It gets us back on track. It shows we’re not done and we’re not going to lay down. I think we proved that.”

“We came out with more energy, especially in the second half,” added Miami sophomore forward Julian Mavunga. “Hopefully, it’ll be the start for us getting back on a roll.”

Miami (12-15) led by as many as 23 points late in the second half before coach Charlie Coles cleared his bench.

Just about everybody got into the act.

Antonio Ballard scored a team-high 12 points and also grabbed nine rebounds, Mavunga added 11 points, Kenny Hayes scored 10 and Nick Winbush hauled in a career-high 13 rebounds.

Freshman Orlando Williams also had a breakout game of sorts, scoring 11 points while drilling 3-of-4 shots from the 3-point arc after he had gone scoreless in his previous five games.

In the closing minutes the little-used subs had their chance.

Sophomore forward Adam Thomas of Springboro scored his first points of the season with a shattering slam, redshirt freshman center Vince Legarza sank 3-of-4 free throws, and walk-on senior guard Michael Aluise, much to the delight of the 2,060 fans, saw his first playing time since Dec. 8 and grabbed two rebounds.

Coles said he had been impossible to get along with over the last few days because he was pushing the team so much.

“During the timeouts, I was ranting and raving,” he said. “I wanted us to win. I felt like the guys needed to see a win ... To get out of here today with a win, plus I wasn’t arrested, that was a good thing.”

Coles wasn’t so happy about Southeast Missouri (7-21) getting eight offensive rebounds in the first half and scoring 16 of its 24 points after missing the first shot on a possession.

“Our guys need to address that,” he said.

Coles isn’t a big fan of the BracketBuster as it now stands, involving all schools from the so-called mid-major conferences.

“I think this BracketBuster thing has played out a little bit,” he said. “Reserve it for teams that are in contention.”

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