“It’s part of the process,” said MU coach John Cooper, whose squad fell to 3-3 and had its two-game winning streak come to an end. “Teams are going to make runs. If we’re at home, we’re going to make a run. But one of the things you have to do is be able to execute, and we didn’t do that enough in the second half.”
Will Felder had 15 points and 8 rebounds for Miami, while Allen Roberts sank 9-of-10 free throws and totaled 11 points. Quinten Rollins and Reggie Johnson added 8 points apiece.
Roberts drove the lane and was fouled with 24.7 seconds remaining. He calmly drained the two foul shots that gave the visitors a 56-55 edge.
“We still had to make a defensive stop, which we did not do,” Roberts said. “Things like this shouldn’t happen. At the end of the day, you’ve got to finish out. You can’t just halfway do something. You’ve got to go all the way through.”
The Mastodons’ winning bucket came after a pair of timeouts with 5.2 seconds left. Hines took advantage of some MU defensive confusion and got a wide-open look at the rim.
The RedHawks quickly came down the floor, and Johnson’s 3-point bomb from just inside the halfcourt line hit the backboard.
Joe Edwards paced the balanced scoring attack for IPFW (5-4) with 10 points. The Mastodons were down by 14 four times, the last being 40-26 with 15:44 remaining.
“I think we’ve got to give a lot of credit to Miami,” IPFW coach Tony Jasick said. “Even though we knew they were going to press and we knew how they were going to press, they did a really good job of executing their game plan in the first half. Our record here hasn’t been real good against Mid-American opponents, so it’s a big win for our program.
“Our guys have a lot of fight, and I thought the band and the student section was the best it’s been in the eight years I’ve been here. This was a fun place to play tonight.”
The Mastodons shot 42.0 perfect from the floor and made just 10-of-21 free throws. Miami, which visits Evansville on Wednesday, shot 41.5 percent from the floor and was 19-of-26 at the charity stripe.
“We didn’t feel like we had it,” Felder said. “In the game of basketball, teams make runs, especially when they’re down in the second half. No team is going to let you come in and cruise that easy. So we’ve just got to learn to take punches and keep moving and keep the lead.”
About the Author