Miami's Danny Horace (35) is hugged by teammate Chester Mason. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        HONOLULU — Coming into the Rainbow Classic, Charlie Coles had a feeling there were better days ahead for his hard-luck team.

        Miami University proved it Thursday night, upsetting No. 10 Boston College 73-67 in the first round of the eight-team tournament.

        “We've been playing pretty well the last few games,” Coles said. “If you saw our last couple of games, we knew we were playing pretty good basketball.”

        In the three games prior to coming to Hawaii, the RedHawks (3-5) had lost by a total of nine points.

        Against the previously unbeaten Eagles (9-1), Miami got unexpected scoring help from Chester Mason and reserve Ben Helmers. Alex Shorts led Miami with 21 points, Mason added 18 and Helmers had 12 on four 3-pointers. Mason entered the game averaging 5.3 points and Helmers 2.3 points.

        “Sometimes it's a matter of putting the ball in the basket,” losing coach Al Skinner said. “Tonight, we didn't do that. We usually have three guys in double figures, but tonight we had only two.”

        One was Troy Bell, who finished with 29 points to raise his four-game total to 129. But he was 7-of-19 from the field and only 2-of-10 from 3-point range.

        The only other BC player in double figures was Kenny Walls with 19.

        “We didn't respond at the end of the game,” Skinner said.

        The Eagles had been averaging 84.4 points.

        Shorts scored 13 points in the second half, keying a 10-1 run that helped boost the RedHawks to a 57-51 advantage.

        But his big points came in the final 59 seconds when he converted a three-point play and made two free throws that gave Miami the lead for good.

        Boston College tied it at 65 on a 3-pointer by Walls, and moved ahead on a free throw by Bell, but Shorts went on his five-point spree to put the RedHawks ahead for good, 70-67.

        For good measure, Mason added three free throws to close out the scoring.

        Bell had a message for his teammates.

        “What we learned tonight is that we're not invincible,” he said. “Some of the guys thought that coming into this game. I think we all learned we have to play every night.”

BOSTON COLLEGE (67)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Agbai           28   2-3   2-2   1-5  2  3    6
Bell            40  7-19 13-16   2-5  5  2   29
Sidney          38  3-11   1-2   3-4  2  4    8
Doornekamp       8   0-2   0-0   2-5  0  2    0
Walls           33  7-16   1-2   2-4  2  2   19
Watson           9   0-1   0-2   1-1  0  2    0
Bryant          26   0-5   0-1   1-8  2  4    0
Ross            18   2-4   0-1   1-2  0  2    5
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 21-61 17-26 13-34 13 21   67
_______________________________________________


Percentages: FG-.344, FT-.654. 3-Point Goals:
8-28, .286 (Bell 2-10, Sidney 1-3, Walls 4-10,
Bryant 0-4, Ross 1-1). Team rebounds: 3. Blocked
shots: 1 (Agbai). Turnovers: 9 (Sidney 3, Bryant
2, Walls 2, Agbai, Doornekamp). Steals: 4 (Agbai,
Bell, Sidney, Walls).


MIAMI (73)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Mason           30  7-13   3-5   3-6  5  4   18
Johnson         36   2-6   2-5   1-3  3  3    8
Davis           17   1-6   2-2   0-2  2  4    4
Horace          35   4-8   0-1  1-11  1  2    8
Shorts          25  6-13  9-10   1-4  1  4   21
Jameson          1   0-1   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
Helmers         31   4-6   0-0   1-3  0  2   12
Seals           25   1-3   0-0   3-4  1  2    2
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 25-56 16-23 10-33 13 21   73
_______________________________________________


Percentages: FG-.446, FT-.696. 3-Point Goals:
7-15, .467 (Mason 1-1, Johnson 2-4, Davis 0-2,
Jameson 0-1, Helmers 4-6, Seals 0-1). Team
rebounds: 4. Blocked shots: 4 (Horace 3, Shorts).
Turnovers: 12 (Mason 6, Shorts 2, Davis, Helmers,
Johnson). Steals: 1 (Seals).
__________________________________
Boston College     39   28  -   67
Miami              37   36  -   73
__________________________________
Technical fouls: Boston College 1 (Walls).  Miami
  1 (Bench). Officials: Ron Zetcher, Bobby
Hunt, David Stevens.

       

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