Eastern is 2-23 (1-13), but their one conference win was a comeback win at NIU Saturday. Down 10 with 6 minutes to go the Eagles rallied to win 76-72. Two games ago at home they only lost to first place Ball State by 5 points. Those results show that former Miami Assistant and first year as Eastern head coach Samar Nesseibeh has them working hard in practice and they are improving. We beat them 68 to 45 in Oxford a few weeks ago. In that game we often triple teamed 6-2 Jr Sisi Eleko and he’d her to 7 points and 8 rebounds that night. On the year she is second in the MAC in scoring at 18.3 ppg and 10 rebounds per game.
In their win at NIU Eliko had 20/9. 5-5 Jr Olivia Smith had 14, 5-8 Sr Kyndal Lewis had 13, and 6-0 Jr Brooklyn Thrash ( from Dayton Wayne) had 10….former Miami player Tijuana Fulton is a Grad assistant.
For Miami 16-9(8-6) this is another long midweek trip where we will get home very late after the game. Eastern has to be pumped after finally getting a win again and it will be a much tougher challenge than our first meeting. We are now tied with BG for 5th and 6th with Central one game behind us and Western two games behind us and Kent one game ahead of us. No time to take it easy now, have to drive hard to the finish.
For those gnashing their teeth over the loss to UB, in last week’s mid major women’s top 25 poll, Ball State was 7, UB 19. So we played a very tough opponent. FYI, Toledo, Kent, AND Miami all received votes last week. Also, don’t forget, Miami is starting 2 true freshman, including a true freshman PG, and 4 of the 5 starters are new to the team this year. UB started 4 players who were either seniors or 5th year seniors, and a sophomore. Miami will have ups and downs, with a young team, still learning to play with one another, even this late in the season.
8 straight points for Miami and we take and 11-5 lead, TO EMU with 6:00 to go in the first. We are getting out and running and just attacking the bucket every time, plus pressing. Probably the most up tempo offense for the first 4 minutes we have had this season.
Glenn talked about it in his podcast this week. This whole damn team dribbles into the teeth of the defense way to much. Miami up 16-13 after one quarter but they need to clean up on the offensive end. When the subs were in offense stalled and there were 3 offensive foul calls.
16 to 13 Miami at the end of one. Amelia, who is the second best player for Eastern, is back tonight after missing 4 weeks and she is helping them. We have 6 turnovers and Tamar is not respecting our possession. Half of her passes Eastern has gotten their hand on. Make safer, more conservative passes.
Excuse me Dick but Tamar isn’t the issue. She has 5 steals. I don’t know what you have against her but it is tiresome. Every game you single out Tamar for your ire. Enj has two turnovers just like Tamar yet you say nothing about her.
Miami dominating the second quarter with 4 minutes to go. Miami 18-3 this quarter. 5 threes in the game. This 2nd quarter has been one of Miami’s best of the year. Timeout on the floor. Need to finish the quarter strong
Great run by Miami and it is 34-16, we stopped turning it over and hit a bunch of 3’s. Halfway through the second and no TO’s this quarter. Singer had a great 5 minutes and now has 6 steals.
What? Nobody has anything against Tamar. Dick’s criticism is valid. She often dribbles into traffic which leads to turnovers. She plays at full speed all the time; with experience she will learn to moderate her speed and value every possession.
Miami up 39-16 at the half. Miami wins the second quarter 23-3. Singer with 10, Tretter and Enj with 7 each. Ilse with 6. Tretter with 7 boards. Tamar, Enj and Ilse all with 2 tunrovers each. Singer with 7 steals, 4 assists, 4 rebounds to go with her 10 points. Miami with 5 blocks.
Eastern is bad. We are good. I have been impressed by the lack of “fumbles “ on catches by our posts, especially on the run. I must repeat, Eastern is bad.
GREAT SECOND QUARTER. Once we started taking care of the ball we started getting open looks, plus Tamar played I would say her best quarter of the season, running the offense cleanly, scoring, completely destroying their point guard with steal after steal.
Miami shooting over 48% and 5-11 on threes. This is the team Glenn and I talk about frequently. Granted EMU is bad, very bad. We may see a rarity. A player have a double double in points and steals. I said before the UB game this team had a chance at 20 regular season wins. I figured UB to be a loss. If we play the remainder of this game like the first half and play this way against OU, EMU, NIU, we will hit the 20 win mark. Remember year two for Glenn.
Just read your post. You will notice that you posted 10 minutes after mine, in which we played outstanding basketball, and Tamar was the best player on the floor for that whole quarter. The biggest part of that was that she got us into her offense and we played cleanly with safe sure passes. Tamar was absolutely great in the second quarter. Ilse played well too.
Tamar is the point guard, the most important position. She is capable of playing great but she also has been starting games with terrible passing, At Akron she had 3 to’s in the first 3 minutes. It was not good early against UB either and contribute a lot to the 20-0 UB run. Tonight she started off the game with the same sloppy passing. I call them as I see them. We need her at her best for us to be at our best.