Nearly a week after shooting very poorly in a loss at Wright State, the Miami RedHawks displayed their shooting touch while knocking off the St. Joseph Lions 79-64 Friday at Millett Hall.
It was the RedHawks second win of the Miami Invitational, with MU having defeated Western Illinois Wednesday. Miami, now 2-1, owned big leads but ultimately had to fight off pesky challenges in both contests.
The Lions actually . . .
Down by 12 at intermission and 18 at 12:23 of the second stanza, Mount St. Joseph put together a 17-5 run to trail 62-58 with 5:18 remaining. Miami, which shot well overall, still went just over five-and-a-half minutes without scoring. Mekhi Lairy finally got the RedHawks back on track with a basket at 4:56 to start a 7-2 Miami spurt. Five of MU's points came off free throws and the RedHawks pulled away a final time with a 10-2 run down the stretch.
Lairy and Isaiah Coleman-Lands combined for 12 of MU's last 17 points, and both players posted career scoring highs. The former tallied 21 points while hitting 8-of-13 shots from the field. He was 3-of-6 beyond the arc and made both free throws. Coleman-Lands made 6-of-12 overall and 3-of-7 beyond the arc. He was a perfect 4-of-4 at the line.
Dae Dae Grant also reached double figures scoring with 11 points and James Beck led Miami on the boards with 10 rebounds. MU, facing the smaller but scrappy Lions, owned a 32-25 edge on the boards. The RedHawks had nine second chance points to just three for MSJ. Miami also had a 17-3 edge in points off turnovers.
Devin Young led Mount St. Joseph with 23 points, hitting 9-of-15 overall and 5-of-8 treys. Joining him in double figures were David Luers (13), Tanner Close (11) and Avery Paddock (11).
In addition to shooting well from distance (42.9% on treys), the Lions used their Princeton-style offense effectively enough to have a 28-18 advantage from points in the paint. They were, however, outscored 34-0 in points off the bench.
With the final horn, Miami turned its attention to Monday's Mid-American Conference opener. MU hosts Buffalo, which was ironically the last team Miami played before Covid issues shut down the Mid-American Conference basketball tournament. The RedHawks upset UB in first round action, but did not get to play any more games.
Monday's game time is 5:30 p.m., but there is no general public admittance. The contest will be carried on ESPN+ or ESPN 3 in addition to Miami's usual radio outlets.