The Hilltoppers have gone 6-0 against Miami, most of the games in recent seasons. Last year it was a blowout in Bowling Green, Kentucky 91-55. They are off to a 3-1 start with wins over Mercer, Southern Utah, and Cornell. They lost 77-74 at Vanderbilt. It looks like they start 3 guards, a 5-11 forward, and a 6-3 freshman center. 5-8 soph Acacia Hayes averages 16.5 ppg and 5-5 JR Alexis Mead average 12 ppg.
This is our home opener ( we only have 3 home games before MAC play starts in January). We are 0-2, losing 60 - 48 at Vermont and 78-62 at Louisiana-Monroe. We have been led by the Scott twins:
Points
Jadyn Scott 14.0
Jada Scott 10.0
Hennessey Luu-Brown 9.0
Amber Tretter 8.0
Rebounds
Jadyn Scott 6.5
Jada Scott 4.0
Maddy Huhn 4.0
Coach Box keeps saying that Jada Scott is our best player and she can do a lot more. hopefully we will see this tomorrow.
Well, looks like we lost by 20. I had some kid related stuff and wasn’t able to watch online. Coach Box and staff are good. This team will improve and I predict we turn the tables on a school like this come year 3. Scott is a great player. I hope this is a year we use to set the table for a great run.
The Final result was kind of what was expected, but how we got there was unusual. We were up 20-12 at halftime. WKU missed their first 17 threes. They had no layups in the first half as our defense doubled down inside and forced them into perimeter shots which they missed time and again. Then they could not miss in the third quarter and outscored us 39-11, so we were down 20 at the end of 3. That was also the final margin. We got outrebounded 39-27 and had 20 TO’s vs their 17. We shot 37% from the floor, 16% from 3, and 63% from the line. They were 40%, 28%, and 72%, so they were better in every category.
We had a new starting lineup and Cori Lard, who had hardly played at all previously, played 34 minutes and was good defensively and handled the ball well. We also started and played most of the game with 3 guards and 2 bigs, we had been playing 2 guards and 3 bigs. Attendance was poor, around 380. Our players come from all over, except SW Ohio, so we are not going to get many parents, relatives, or hs friends to help the crowds.
Remember that this is a loaded schedule designed for a team with 5 returning starters, 3 of which would have been 5th year players and the other 2 would have been Juniors in their third year as a starter. There is no scheduled home game vs a weak basketball school. If we keep working hard some wins may come, but so far the games have been decided before we got to the last 7 or 8 minutes. We have a ways to go.
The Miami women’s BB schedule this year would have been ideal in Box’s second or third year as coach…Miami women’s BB by then will be considerably more competitive…but it is what it is.