Miami won at OU last season. Miami is 4-13 (2-5). Ohio is 6-11 (3-4) and has won 2 in a row over EMU and Central. Miami leads the all time series 59-40. A win and we are tied with OU, a loss and we are two games behind them. Soph Jaya McClure leads them with 12.6ppg, JR transfer Kennedi Watkins 10.6ppg. Fr Monica Williams is their third leading scorer and RSJr Maddie Mace leads the team in rebounding. In their last game 2 other freshmen scored in double digits, so they are pretty young.
I think Katey Richason will be out for awhile as she was still on crutches Tuesday in Muncie. Lakresha Edwards was still in street clothes, but walking without a limp and I would think might be back soon. Here are Miami’s stat leaders: Jaydyn Scott10.4ppg and 49% FG, Amber Tretter 6.7 rpg, Nuria Jurjo 2.6 apg, Cori Lard 1.9 spg, Lakresha Edwards 1.8 threes pg, and Riley Neal 91.7%ft. OU is not a big team, and we might be able to find some success inside.
In this game, for the first 25 minutes, Ohio beat us to almost every loose ball and scored quickly off our mistakes. We stood around watching, they anticipated where rebounds might go by watching the shots, they anticipated passing lanes, they were just more into it and more aggressive. We were down 18-16 halfway through the second quarter, and then down 47-20 halfway through the third quarter. So during that 10 minute period we got outscored 29 to 4. It was terrible to watch. After that we changed to a full court press and got more aggressive and managed to get the final score down to a 71-55 loss. We did look better then, but the game had been decided before that.
Amber Tretter scored 19 and had a double double. But even she could have done so much more, as she was only 4 for 13 from the floor, and she failed to score time and again from 2 or 3 feet. She is 6-1 and has very long arms, so when she keeps her hands extended above her head defensively, she is very difficult to shoot over. She does that well. But on offense, she brings the ball down and shoots from below her shoulders and has difficulty getting the shots off. When she is down close to the basket, if she would get the ball above her head with her arms extended and jump and shoot a short jump shot and she could score at ease on the low post and off offensive rebounds. She has worked hard to learn to use her left hand and to shoot a good 3, this is what she needs to develop next. Honestly, if she could do that, she would have had 30 points yesterday.
With 3 of our rotational players now out with injuries, our bench yesterday was very close to worthless. Riley Neal would not move her feet defensively and they drove right by her with ease. Nuria Jurjo, who is actually very athletic, also has not learned to play defense with her feet, she continually reaches in or body blocks drivers. She fouled out in 6 minutes, and she is constantly fouling almost every game. Jordan Tuff did not doing anything wrong, but she did not really contribute anything at all statistically. So those 3 girls, who are now our bench with 3 girls out, played a grand total of just 21 minutes and contributed almost nothing positively and our starters had to play 171 minutes.
Next game is Wednesday in Oxford, against Central Michigan, who is below us in the standings, We need to be better than we were yesterday.
I watched the replay. After hanging with them in the first period we did get totally smoked in the second quarter. Ohio is not a good team and they were playing without two of their regulars, as well. I’m afraid this year’s Miami team might be as good as it’s going to get, given the extreme lack of talent. The broadcast crew did tactfully explain late in game why we’re in the mess we’re in this year. Coach Box is going to have to recruit himself out of this. Even solid coaching isn’t going to help this team much.