Dec. 2, 2009

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OXFORD, Ohio - The Miami University men’s basketball team rallied from a late eight-point deficit to close within one in the final minute but Dayton knocked down its final six free throws to secure a 65-58 victory Wednesday night in front of 4,820 people at Millett Hall. The RedHawks (2-5) grabbed a 12-point lead early in the contest but shot just 8-of-22 in the second half (36.4 percent) while the Flyers (4-2) hit 55.0 percent of its shots in the final period to snag the victory.

Junior guard Rodney Haddix (Georgetown, Ky.) led Miami with a game-high 15 points, hitting 3-of-4 shots from distance, while senior guard Kenny Hayes (Dayton, Ohio) chipped in 13 points, hitting his first four shots of the game. Senior center Adam Fletcher (St. Albans, W.Va.) hauled in a career- and game-high nine rebounds while also adding eight points for the RedHawks. Chris Wright led the Flyers with 14 points while Chris Johnson contributed 13 points and eight boards. The RedHawks shot 42.2 percent on the night (19-of-45) while Dayton hit 48.9 percent of its shots (22-for-45).

A triple from sophomore forward Julian Mavunga (Indianapolis, Ind.) opened the scoring on Miami’s first possession and Hayes added nine points on 4-of-4 shooting to give Miami an early 13-4 cushion less than seven minutes into the contest. After Dayton’s Mickey Perry cut the lead to seven with a layup, Haddix found a slashing Nick Winbush (Shaker Heights, Ohio) for an easy layup and Haddix followed that by burying a trifecta to push the margin to 12 at 18-6 at the under-12 timeout. The Flyers then used a 14-2 spurt over the next five and a half minutes, capped by an old-fashioned three-point play from Wright, to even the game at 20 with 5:42 remaining in the half.

Sophomore guard Kramer Soderberg (St. Charles, Mo.) stopped the bleeding with a 3-pointer on the RedHawks’ next trip down the floor. Dayton grabbed its first lead of the contest at 25-23, however, with 2:24 to play on a pair of free throws by Devin Searcy, but a jumper by Fletcher again knotted the game. With the game tied at 28 and time winding down, Wright drove to the basket and was fouled. He made both free throws to send the teams into the lockerroom with the Flyers leading 30-28 as Hayes’ heave at the buzzer was too strong.

Both squads made 11 field goals in the opening 20 minutes as Miami shot 47.8 percent while Dayton hit at a 44.0 percent clip. The biggest discrepancy was at the charity stripe where UD was 5-of-7 while the ’Hawks hit just 2-of-10 freebies. Both sides also pulled down 16 boards with Miami’s Fletcher and Dayton’s Wright each corralling five. Hayes paced the RedHawks with nine points, all in the first seven minutes, while three Flyers (Johnson, Perry and Wright) each chipped in five points in the opening period.

Winbush opened the second stanza with a 3-pointer but seven straight points from Dayton bumped Miami’s deficit to six—its largest of the game—with 16:21 to play, forcing a RedHawk timeout. A triple by UD’s Paul Williams stretched the Flyers’ advantage to seven at 43-36 with 11:45 remaining. The teams traded points until Dayton extended its lead to eight at 53-45 on a layup from Wright with less than six minutes on the clock but a pair of free throws by Hayes and a jumper by Mavunga cut the Flyer edge to four a minute later.

Dayton answered with inside buckets from Searcy and Wright to again push the margin to eight with 4:03 left in regulation. A 9-2 Miami spurt with two buckets from Fletcher, a trifecta from Haddix and two free throws by junior Antonio Ballard (Jeffersonville, Ind.) made it a one-point contest at 59-58 with 34 ticks to go. UD’s London Warren knocked down two freebies to make it 61-58 after Miami fouled and the ’Hawks were unable to convert another basket as the Flyers tacked on four more free throws to close out the 65-58 victory.

The RedHawks round-out their three-game home stand Tuesday, Dec. 8 by hosting the Temple Owls of the Atlantic-10. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. ET at Millett Hall.

--MURedHawks.com--