Thursday, February 15, 2001
Miami 57, Northern Illinois 46
RedHawks move over .500 at 13-12
By Ryan Waldheger
Enquirer contributor
OXFORD — With Miami trailing at halftime to a Northern Illinois team that hadn't won on the road, RedHawks coach Charlie Coles didn't rely on a pep talk to shake up his team. He entrusted his assistants, Jermaine Henderson and James Whitford, to do that.
“It's good to have assistants that can go wild like that,” Coles said. “Jermaine didn't say a lot, but for about a minute and a half he was going. And James Whitford couldn't keep his chalk from breaking on the board.”
Whatever message they delivered, the RedHawks received. On the strength of a 16-2 run early in the second half, the RedHawks reeled off their third straight victory, 57-46, and inched above the .500 mark for the first time this season.
Miami, now 13-12 and 9-5 in the Mid-American Conference, have won seven of their past nine games and find themselves battling for a top-three finish in the MAC, which would give them a first-round bye in the MAC tournament.
“I think this was a big game for us,” Miami senior Jason Grunkemeyer said. “To get over the hump and win three in a row is big.”
For the second game in a row, it was Grunkemeyer who scored the points when the RedHawks needed them. Unlike in the win over Ball State, when he went 11-for-11 from the free throw line, Grunkemeyer scored all 17 of his points from the field, hitting seven of 11 shots, including all three 3-pointers.
Grunkemeyer said Coles had scolded him for not taking some open shots early in the game. “There were a couple of times where I passed the shot up,” he said. “I really didn't want to get yelled at any more.”
Fortunately for Miami, its poor shooting from the free throw line (10 of 21), didn't cost MU the game.
In the first half, the Huskies showed few signs of a team that had dropped each of its eight road games.
Scoring on three of its first four possessions, Northern Illinois built a 7-0 lead.
The RedHawks answered with a seven-point run but never could seize the lead, trailing 29-25 at the half.
Miami's next challenge comes on the road Saturday, when MU meets Akron, which defeated the RedHawks 56-46 in January at Millett Hall.
“We all remember what they did,” Grunkemeyer said. “They pretty much embarrassed us at home.”
NORTHERN ILL (46)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Smallwood 23 3-6 0-0 2-7 0 3 6
Rodgers 34 3-10 2-3 0-3 1 1 9
Nelson 17 2-5 0-2 3-5 2 5 4
Brown 40 4-9 2-2 2-2 2 1 13
Jones 33 4-8 0-1 3-7 1 4 8
Ezell 13 2-4 0-0 0-1 0 2 4
Sewasciuk 11 0-2 0-0 0-1 0 0 0
Determan 29 1-2 0-0 0-3 0 3 2
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 19-46 4-8 10-29 6 19 46
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.413, FT-.500. 3-Point Goals:
4-14, .286 (Rodgers 1-4, Brown 3-7, Jones 0-1,
Ezell 0-1, Sewasciuk 0-1). Team rebounds: 1.
Blocked shots: 2 (Rodgers, Nelson). Turnovers: 30
(Jones 7, Rodgers 6, Brown 2, Ezell 2, Smallwood
2, Nelson). Steals: 6 (Jones 2, Brown, Determan,
Ezell, Nelson).
MIAMI (57)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Johnson 27 2-3 2-7 2-2 0 2 7
Shorts 26 3-9 3-4 2-6 0 2 9
Ensminger 26 1-3 0-1 1-5 0 2 2
Grunkemeyer 38 7-11 0-0 0-3 1 2 17
Davis 24 1-4 4-5 0-0 4 4 6
Jameson 18 1-3 0-0 0-0 3 2 2
Drake 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Williams 1 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 2
Helmers 1 0-0 1-2 0-0 0 0 1
Seals 10 2-4 0-0 1-1 0 0 4
Reed 9 2-4 0-0 1-1 0 1 5
Edwards 1 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0
Allendorf 18 1-1 0-2 1-4 0 1 2
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 21-43 10-21 8-23 8 16 57
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.488, FT-.476. 3-Point Goals:
5-10, .500 (Johnson 1-1, Grunkemeyer 3-3, Davis
0-2, Jameson 0-1, Reed 1-3). Team rebounds: 4.
Blocked shots: 2 (Seals, Allendorf). Turnovers:
27 (Shorts 5, Johnson 2, Davis, Ensminger,
Grunkemeyer, Jameson, Reed). Steals: 12 (Jameson
5, Davis 3, Ensminger 2, Johnson, Shorts).
__________________________________
Northern Ill 29 17 - 46
Miami Ohio 25 32 - 57
__________________________________
Technical fouls: None. A: 2,434. Officials: Sam
Lickliter, Todd Williams, Fox.
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Miami 57, Northern Illinois 46
