I would emphasize the 6:00 start, which is a first for us but gets the girls home an hour earlier. I would also point out that the men’s game on Tuesday is a 6:30 start, also a half hour earlier than usual.
Akron was doing better early in the MAC season, but a series of injuries reduced their roster to 7 at one point. I think they only had 8 available for their home game Saturday vs Toledo, A tie game at half turned into a 20 point loss. They have lost 9 in a row. The Zips have dropped to 9-16 ( 3-9). We beat them earlier in Oxford 76 to 51. We had lost 8 straight vs the Zips, but Coach Box is 2-0 since then. This is the second year for former Dayton assistant Ryan Ginzler. At the end of last year they lost their first team all MAC big girl to Purdue and he brought in transfers from Memphis, Virginia Tech, Ilinois, Tulsa, and Middle Tennessee.
Leading scores on the year are 5-11 Jr Shelby Brown who averages 12.8/8.5 and gave us some problems the first time we played them. Alexus Mobley, a 5-7 Sr, just came back from injury. She avaverages12.3. In their most recent game, 6-2 FR N’rah Clark scored 16 vs Toledo.
If you go back to the Kent game thread, Cool Papa has a rundown on what we have accomplished so far and Quinoa has laid out the possibility of us finishing the regular season with a ten game winning streak and 21 wins.
Per the NCAA Women’s Basketball Net Rankings, they are ranked 128, which is 5th in the MAC. Ball State is top in the MAC at 61. They also have a legitimate shot at winning 20 regular season games this year.
Miami ranks atop the conference, allowing 56.2 points per game
(32nd nationally). The RedHawks have held seven opponents to under 50 points this season.
• Miami ranks 16th nationally, forcing 21.8 turnovers per contest. The RedHawks are 11-3 on the year when they force their opponent into 20-plus turnovers.
• Miami leads the conference with 12.0 steals/game (16th nationally) and features five players ranked in the top-15 in the MAC: Tamar Singer (2.2, 6th), Enjulina Gonzalez (1.7, 11th), Cori Lard (1.7, 11th), Amber Tretter (1.6, 13th) and Maya Chandler (1.5, 15th)
Miami has a chance to do something never done before on
the defensive end. The best defensive effort in a season was all the way back in 1977-78 when Miami allowed 56.9 points/game. This season, the RedHawks are currently allowing 56.2 points/game.
FYI this is Miami WBB third straight road game. 954 miles to Lafayette, Louisiana, followed by 253 miles on a bus to Kent, and today, 241 miles on a bus to Akron. So 4 bus trips, plus travel to Louisiana.
Up 49-47 at the end of three. Brown was held scoreless in the third. We’re 2-16 on threes. There’s a reason Akron is 9-16 and it shows. They are not good. Hit some threes and we should win.
Switched Tretter onto Brown this half and Brown only has three shots and 0 points.
Cream rises to the top. Tretter with double/double 15-11, Enj with 16, Chandler with 17 and Richason with 12. 70-58 final. Let’s get 20 wins.
Last Saturday Akron at home, Akron was tied with Toledo, but Shelby Brown fouled our early and played less than half the Game and they lost by 20. They only had 8 scholarship players available tonight and eventually they wore down and we had a big 4th quarter. 10 game losing streak for the Zips, 5 game winning streak for our RedHawks.
In his post game interview Coach Box was talking about how much harder it is to go on the road on these Wednesday nights, same thing I keep bringing up and which bit the men this week. Buffalo beat Kent so we are tied with Kent now. By far the best remaining team on our schedule is Buffalo. Please make the effort to be there on Saturday to support our team. 1:00 game and free tickets are available if you need them.
Before 4,100 fans at Toledo the Rockets won their 7th game in a row and gave Ball State their first MAC loss of the year . Ball State only won by 5 at EMU Saturday so once again they might be fading late in the season.
