“Coming into the game, I was just thankful to get a chance to play this game again,” said Edwards, the Middletown High School product and transfer from Penn State. “After going down with my knee injury, a lot of people questioned whether I’d ever play again.”
The 6-foot-8 Edwards, who hadn’t played since suffering a knee injury that required surgery, finished with a career-high 24 points, surpassing the 21 he scored against Xavier on Nov. 18, 2011. He went 4-of-7 on 3-point shots and also had five rebounds, two assists, a blocked shot and a turnover in 24 minutes.
“That’s a point-a-minute clip,” Miami coach John Cooper observed. “That’s pretty good. What that teaches you about Bill is he understands the game. He’s not the quickest guy out there or the most athletic, but he’s got a lot of savvy.”
Senior Will Felder scored 19 points, 15 in the second half, and sophomore guard Willie Moore added 11 for Miami (5-8, 1-1), a MAC East Division team playing its second West team in two games.
Brown’s game-winning free throw left him with a game-high 25 points, including four 3-pointers in eight tries, for Western Michigan (9-5, 2-0), which picked up its first win on an opponent’s home court. Connar Tava added 22 and Shayne Whittington added 11 for the Broncos, who shot 56.1 percent from the field (23-of-41), including 44.4 percent on 3-pointers (8-of-18) and 24-of-27 on free throws (24-of-27).
“Those are hard percentages to overcome,” Cooper said. “If we take that game on the road, we get our clocks cleaned. We’ve got to get that part cleaned up.”
The RedHawks shot just 29.2 percent from the field in the first half and trailed by as many as 14 points. Moore, who scored all of his points in the second half, and Felder led a comeback that saw the RedHawks force eight lead changes and five ties in the second half. Moore forced overtime by connecting on an acrobatic driving layup with 2.6 seconds left in regulation.
“Nothing really changed,” Felder said about the difference in his and Miami’s performance from half to half. “My teammates started driving, and that opened up some lanes for me, and we got some turnovers that led to easy baskets. Making the hustle plays helped.”
Edwards scored Miami’s first four points of overtime to give the RedHawks two leads, but the Broncos connected on 11-of-13 in the first overtime of the season for both teams.
Miami went 17-of-18 on free throws and forced 16 turnovers, leading to a 17-8 advantage in points off turnovers that helped keep the RedHawks in the game.
Miami is scheduled to return to action on Wednesday at Akron, the defending MAC champions and the team picked in the preseason media poll to win the East and the tournament championship.
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