Miami eliminated by Ohio

RedHawks only score 12 points in the first half and don’t have answers for Bassett and Washington.

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By Pete Conrad, Staff Writer Updated 2:16 AM Saturday, March 13, 2010

CLEVELAND — Maybe the Miami University basketball team could have withstood a big game from Armon Bassett.

And maybe the RedHawks could have withstood a big game from DeVaughn Washington.

And maybe they could have survived one of the more futile first halves in recent memory.

But they couldn’t withstand all three, not on the same night, not in the Mid-American Conference tournament semifinals against their old rivals in green.

The Ohio Bobcats ended the RedHawks’ championship hopes with a 54-42 victory Friday night, March 12, at Quicken Loans Arena behind Bassett, a junior guard who scored 28 points, and Washington, a junior forward who added 18 points with a couple highlight-reel slam dunks.

“When you get in the tournament, it’s tough to lose,” said Miami coach Charlie Coles, “but for Ohio University to come from where they came from is monumental.”

The Bobcats (20-14), the No. 9 seed who lost their first four conference games, will play in the MAC championship game against the defending-champion Akron Zips at 6 p.m. today on ESPN2.

The RedHawks, unlike their quarterfinal win over Buffalo in which they scored 17 first-half points in the blink of an eye, did not produce points in bunches this time. Miami scored just two points in the first 9 minutes and seemed to be thrown off stride by four early offensive fouls called against them.

“We got a little frustrated,” Miami senior guard Kenny Hayes said. “It kind of got to us as a team. It got in our heads and we started taking outside shots.”

Miami shot just 34.8 percent from the floor and didn’t get into any rhythm until Kramer Soderberg came off the bench late in the second half, with Ohio already leading by 20 points, and scored eight straight points with back-to-back 3-pointers.

Hayes ended his Miami career with a team-high 12 points, 11 short of the 1,000 mark for his career, and senior center Adam Fletcher bowed out with a team-high nine rebounds.

The loss drops Miami’s record to 14-18 overall, giving the RedHawks their first losing season in seven years, since 2003 when they finished 13-15 overall.

Both teams struggled in a low-scoring first half that was practically a no-scoring first half. The Bobcats took a 21-12 lead at the break despite shooting 27.3 from the floor, mainly because the RedHawks shot 25 percent and had 10 turnovers to boot.

Miami went scoreless for a stretch of 8:25 in the first half, then went without a point for another span of 7:32 in the same half.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2197 or pconrad@coxohio.com.

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