This is an education day game starting at 10:15 tomorrow morning. They are asking Miami fans to sit in Section 18, leaving the middle sections to the kids.
Vermont was 20-11 last year and really challenged themselves by playing at #11 Indiana 3 nights ago. They lost 86-49 and are probably stopping in Oxford on their way home. Delaney Richason scored 8 points against IU, she is the sister of Miami’s Katey Richason, who scored 4 points against Xavier on Monday.
Miami was led by soph Maddie Cluse who had 24 points ( career high) and 6 rebounds but got herself in foul trouble with some lazy defense and when she went to the bench, Xavier went to town.
Fellow Sophomore Ivy Wolf had 17 points, 5 assists, and 6 steals and kept herself on the floor for 35 minutes, which is what we need from Cluse as well. There is still no word for when star player Peyton Scott will return to the lineup.
Sophomore walk on Clare Chambers played 23 minutes and had 9 points, which has to be more than she scored all year last season.
We won 79-73 begore a crowd of 1676, about 1400 of those were screaming, passionate elementary kids. It was a great atmosphere, and inspired our girls to a 28 to 8 lead after the first quarter ( Ivy Wolf was on fire, with 16 points in the first quarter), which we quickly expanded to 34-10. Things changed quickly as Vermont went on a 17-0 run to cut it to 34-27. At the half we were up 9, 41-32. After Wolf dominated the first quarter, Vermont made some defensive changes and doubled her when she started to dribble toward the basket. She only scored 2 more points in the game. Shutting off Wolf opened things up for Maddie Cluse.
At the end it was 60-55 Miami, but Vermont quickly cut it to 2. Then Cluse score 7 straight and Morrow hit a 3 and the lead went up to 11. Vermont rallied again and cut it to 3 with 2 minutes to go. but Morrow and Freeman closed it out and we won 79-73.
Vermont had 5 girls with between 14 and 10 and lots of others who scored. 74 of our 79 points were scored by just 4 girls. All 4 played over 30 minutes, while four other girls played between 14 and 19 minutes. Maddie Cluse had 30 points and 11 rebounds, both career highs. Also 4 assists. Ivy Wolf had18 points and 3 assists. Amani Freeman had 14 points ( career high) and 6 rebounds, while Sierra Morrow had 12 points and 7 rebounds.
Maddie Cluse, who averaged 7 points a game last year as a freshman ( she got poked in the eye halfway through the season and wore a mask the rest of the year, which did slow her down) has now scored 24 and 30 in our first two games. Ivy Wolf, who averaged 12 as a freshman, has had 17 and 18 the first two games.
Peyton Scott has been cleared by her doctors and is practicing, but the staff is being cautious with turning her loose. We still do not know when she will return, but right now teams are resorting to doubling up on Cluse and Wolf, so a fully healthy Scott would probably force the other teams to play us more straight up.
A big key today was staying out of foul trouble ( because there is a big drop off when we go beyond the top four) and we cut down on turnovers. Vermont was not as athletic and tough on defense as Xavier was. We only had 11 turnovers, and Wolf and Cluse only had 2 fouls between them.
Dick - Would you say that with the emergence of Cluse as a scorer, coupled with Wolf and Scott, Miami could potentially finish in the upper half of the conference?
Potentially, Yes. We are very thin, right now 4 players who are good enough, with out Scott. Injuries, illness, foul trouble would drop our performance level.