College Basketball: Poor shooting sinks Miami RedHawks

Poor shooting cost the Miami RedHawks men’s basketball team a chance to surpass last season’s win total.

Miami shot a season-worst 30 percent from the field (17-for-56) and the Eastern Michigan Eagles capitalized to knock off the RedHawks, 58-48, in a Mid-American Conference inter-divisional game Saturday at Millett Hall.

The previous season low was 32 percent in a 70-51 loss at Missouri on Dec. 5.

Freshman forward Dalonte Brown tied his season and career high with 17 points and freshman guard Nike Sibande scored all 10 his points in the second half for Miami (11-10, 4-4 MAC East).

Junior guard Darrian Ringo finished with six assists, giving him 161 for the season, the fifth-highest single-season total in program history. Rob Mestas is fourth with 166 in 1985.

The Eagles, who went into the game leading the MAC in blocked shots, finished with six to Miami’s zero. They placed three players in double figures, led by junior guard Paul Jackson’s 15 points. James Thompson logged a doublr-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

Miami returns to Millett Hall for a MAC East game against Akron on Tuesday at 7 p.m. The Kings Firecrackers jumprope team is due to perform at halftime.

Eastern Michigan (12-9, 3-5 MAC West) built a 10-point lead, 45-35, halfway through the second half while the RedHawks were going 2-for-28 from the field in a deep shooting slump that spanned halftime and included making one shot in their first 12 tries after halftime.

Ringo sank a 3-pointer with three seconds left to snap Miami’s 0-for-15 field-goal drought and five the RedHawks a 30-29 halftime lead. The half started like a Wild West duel between Brown and Thompson, the 6-foot-10, 240-pound junior who went into the game leading the MAC in rebounding and field-goal percentage. Thompson six of Eastern Michigan’s first eight points and eight of the Eagles’ first 12, while Brown scored Miami’s first nine and 11 of the RedHawks’ first 13.

Jake Wright gave Miami the largest lead by either team, 24-19, on a 3-pointer with 8:12 left in the half, but Miami’s shooting woes opened the door for the Eagles to chip away and take a 29-26 lead before Brown sank a free throw to finish the half with 14 points and Ringo followed with his buzzer-beating 3-pointer.

• In the opener, sophomore guard Lauren Dickerson scored 27 points and dished out five assists in 40 minutes and junior forward Kendall McCoy notched her second double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds and Miami led for the entire game in a 64-55 win over arch-rival Ohio, snapping a six-game losing streak against the Bobcats in the series between MAC East rivals.

The RedHawks ended the third quarter on a 9-0 run for a 56-42 lead. The Bobcats cut the lead to 58-54 before growing cold, missing their last nine shots from the field and allowing Miami to pull away for its 12th win of the season, the most since going 19-13 in the 2012-2013 season.

Miami (12-8, 4-5) has won three of its last four games and put together back-to-back wins for the first time since ending 2017 with a seven-game win streak.

Ohio freshman guard Cierra Hooks, a Thurgood Marshall High School product, scored five points in 17 minutes.

About the Author