Sports feeds
E-mail sports alerts
HJN sports mobilebGSU 55, miami 52
'Hawks making MAC look mighty
Tough early schedule was supposed to make team battle-tested, but Wednesday's loss was the 4th in 5 league games.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
BOWLING GREEN — It's turning out that the most painful part of the nation's second-most difficult college basketball schedule is not the part where the Miami RedHawks butted heads with the likes of Xavier, Dayton, Louisville, Illinois and Kansas.
Rather, the RedHawks have been getting smacked in the Mid-American Conference, and it happened again Wednesday night with a 55-52 loss at Bowling Green that gave Miami a 1-4 conference record (7-10 overall) and six losses in its last seven games.
Extras
Nate Miller and Darryl Clements each scored 15 points for the Falcons, whose defense came through in the final seconds by forcing Kenny Hayes into a desperation 3-point shot that fell far short at the buzzer.
"We're not surprised at all," Miami forward Tim Pollitz said when he was asked about the difficulty of playing in the MAC. "We've had a target on us since winning the MAC tournament final last year. Every MAC team has a little extra fire, an urge to beat us."
The Falcons (8-9, 3-2 MAC) also had an urge to make amends for their previous game, an 80-44 blowout loss at Akron.
"Our guys, they really showed a lot of character," Bowling Green's first-year coach Louis Orr said, "not just with the final score and coming off the Akron game, but that they were down early."
Miami got off to a fast start, surging to a 15-4 lead when Alex Moosmann hit his second 3-point jumper with 13:18 remaining in the first half.
But the Falcons, who made their first shot and then went scoreless for the next 5 minutes, 44 seconds, began finding the range.
Clements knocked down two treys, Miller hit one and Marc Lawson drilled an outside jumper with 3 seconds left to cap a 20-4 run that gave the Falcons a 26-21 halftime lead.
Miami rallied in the second half with the help of another 3-pointer by Moosmann (who finished with a season-high 22 points) and two 3-point baskets off the bench by Carl Richburg.
Miami cut Bowling Green's lead to one point twice during the final 20 minutes, but was unable to tie the game or reclaim the lead.
Pollitz led Miami with 15 points and nine rebounds, and Hayes finished with 10 points.
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2197 or pconrad@coxohio.com.
