March 6, 2010

Final Stats

OXFORD, Ohio – Some timely shots and great defense down the stretch helped Miami overcome a pesky Northern Illinois squad 67-66 in the first round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament Saturday afternoon. Maggie Boyer led the RedHawks with 18 points. Miami improves to 9-21 overall, while the Huskies finish the season at 10-19.

The eighth seeded RedHawks advance to the quarterfinals of the MAC Tournament Wednesday at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. Miami will take on top-seeded Bowling Green at 4 p.m.

Trailing 61-60 with only 2:27 remaining Courtney Osborn drove to the lane and was fouled. She sank both free throws to give the RedHawks the lead. On the next possession Ashleigh Brown came up with a steal and a key jumper to bring the advantage up to three. Two free throws by the Huskies cut it down to one at 64-63, but on the next possession Boyer was able to sneak the ball into Kirsten Olowinski for the layup to regain the three point lead.

Solid defense by Miami forced Northern Illinois into a turnover with eight seconds remaining. After being fouled Osborn converted one of two free throws to put the RedHawks up four at 67-66. Marke Freeman hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to one at 67-66 with two seconds left. Olowinski was fouled with under a second remaining, but intentionally missed both free throws to force Northern Illinois into a desperation play that came up short.

The beginning of the game bore no resemblance to the earlier meeting between the two schools, a 96-51 Miami victory on Jan. 27. The RedHawks jumped to a 13-6 lead off eight points from Boyer and a layup from Olowinski. Senior Kylie York led a three-point barrage from the Huskies that helped them go on a 22-6 run that gave them a 28-19 advantage with eight minutes remaining in the first half. It would be their largest lead of the game.

A layup from Olowinski and three-pointers from Boyer and Osborn were part of a 10-0 run that gave Miami the advantage back at 29-28. After a Northern Illinois layup, another trey from Boyer along with one from Briana Dunlap and a jumper by Lillian Pitts helped the RedHawks close the half on a 10-4 run and take a 39-34 lead into the break.

The Huskies opened the second half on a 6-2 run to close within one. But two more baskets by Pitts along with a jumper from Brown put Miami up 49-42 with 14:19 to go. Miami would not score again for the next five minutes as a 9-0 run put Northern Illinois in front, 51-49. The lead would change six times over the next six minutes until a huge steal and fastbreak layup by Olowinski with the Huskies about to go up three instead gave Miami a 61-60 advantage. Northern Illinois would regain the lead one more time on two free throws before the RedHawks’ defensive heroics took over to secure the victory.

In addition to Boyer’s 18 points, Olowinski finished with 17 and Osborn 10. Osborn now has 503 points on the year. She is only the fifth player in school history to surpass 500 points in a single season. Brown led the RedHawks with eight rebounds. Mauvolyene Adams led Northern Illinois with 18 points and 18 rebounds.

Miami shot 49 percent (25-for-51) for the game, compared to 39 percent (23-for-59) for the Huskies. The RedHawks forced 12 steals and had 15 assists on their 25 baskets. Osborn was one assist off her career-high with seven.

Printer-friendly format	Email this article