Sunday, January 13, 2002
Miami endures strange ending
Coach Coles wins 100th as team nips Zips
By Ian Duthie
Enquirer contributor
![[img]](http://enquirer.com/editions/2002/01/13/miami_150x200.jpg)
Miami University's Doug Davis celebrates his teams win over Akron.
(Jeff Swinger photo)
| ZOOM | |
OXFORD — Miami defeated Akron 50-48 Saturday afternoon, giving coach Charlie Coles his 100th career win at Miami in somewhat dramatic fashion.
With his team leading by one point, Coles and the RedHawks (6-9, 3-1 Mid-American Conference) experienced a final five seconds that had everyone in attendance wondering what was going on.
After Akron (4-11, 0-4) took its final timeout, Zips guard Rashon Brown drove the length of the court and hit an acrobatic layup to give Akron a one-point advantage with 12 seconds remaining.
Rather than call the team's final timeout, Coles instructed his players to push the ball up the court in hopes of beating Akron down the floor for what he hoped would be the last shot, win or lose.
Senior guard Doug Davis, who had the hot hand, dribbled to the left side of the key, where he found fellow senior Alex Shorts. Shorts calmly faced the basket, brought the ball back behind his head in his unorthodox shooting style and nailed a 12-foot jumper to put Miami ahead with 5.1 seconds left.
“I knew once I took that ball out I was looking for one guy,” Davis said, referring to Shorts, who has a history of hitting game-winners. “He got it, and I knew it was money.”
Rattled by the suddenness of Shorts' bucket, Akron's young team called, and was granted, a timeout it did not have.
Miami assistant coach Ryan Pedon caught the mistake but was unable to summon officials.
“I knew they used their last timeout in the prior possession,” Pedon said. “I just couldn't get (the officials') attention right away.”
Confusion reigned as both teams rushed from their abbreviated huddles back onto the floor to resume play, and coaches scrambled to get off the court.
Referee Tom Clark finally restored order by walking to the scorers table. He then assessed the Zips a technical foul.
“Somebody should have known,” Coles said of the officials' tardiness in making the technical call. “That is all I am going to say about them.”
Shorts, an 86 percent free throw shooter, hit one of two, giving the ball back to Akron with 5.1 seconds still remaining.
Once again Akron turned to Brown, who darted down the right side of the court, only to be cut off by two Miami defenders, who knocked the ball out of bounds as time apparently expired.
But to the surprise of Akron coach Dan Hipsher, the home clock attendant for Miami left the Zips half a second to either win or tie the game.
With Miami defenders focused on 3-point specialist David Falknor, Andy Hipsher lofted a perfect pass to the front of the rim where 7-foot-1 Matt Seibert had an uncontested shot. Seibert's attempt from point-blank range rimmed out, handing Coles one of the most unusual of his 100 wins.
All this came after another horrific first half in which Akron's 2-3 zone strangled Miami, holding the RedHawks to 6-of-30 shooting.
Davis eventually found his touch from the outside, exploiting the zone defense to hit open 3-pointers. Davis finished with a game-high 20 points, nailing five 3-pointers.
Brown led Akron with 17.
AKRON (48)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
A Hipsher 34 3-5 1-3 2-5 6 1 7
Peterson 26 4-13 0-1 3-6 1 2 9
L Penn 6 0-1 0-0 1-1 0 2 0
Brown 38 5-14 5-7 1-4 0 1 17
B Hipsher 31 1-1 0-0 1-2 2 2 2
Wood 7 0-0 2-2 0-1 1 0 2
Jones 8 0-1 0-0 1-5 0 2 0
Falknor 20 2-8 0-0 0-1 0 0 5
Meyers 8 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 2
Seibert 22 2-4 0-0 1-5 0 3 4
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 18-49 8-13 10-30 10 13 48
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.367, FT-.615. 3-Point Goals:
4-7, .571 (Peterson 1-1, Brown 2-4, Falknor 1-2).
Team rebounds: 9. Blocked shots: 4 (Seibert 3,
Meyers). Turnovers: 12 (Brown 3, B Hipsher 2,
Jones 2, Peterson 2, A Hipsher, L Penn, Seibert).
Steals: 3 (Brown, Falknor, Seibert).
MIAMI (50)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Johnson 32 3-7 2-2 1-3 3 4 9
Horace 24 1-4 1-2 4-7 1 1 3
Shorts 33 5-13 4-6 0-1 0 4 14
Davis 40 7-16 1-1 0-3 4 2 20
Mason 31 1-9 0-1 3-7 4 3 2
Drake 14 0-4 0-0 2-4 0 1 0
Helmers 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Seals 21 1-3 0-0 2-5 2 0 2
Edwards 2 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 18-57 8-12 12-30 14 15 50
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.316, FT-.667. 3-Point Goals:
6-21, .286 (Johnson 1-4, Davis 5-12, Mason 0-2,
Drake 0-3). Team rebounds: 6. Blocked shots: 5
(Horace 2, Shorts 2, Seals). Turnovers: 7 (Shorts
4, Seals 2, Mason). Steals: 3 (Edwards, Horace,
Mason).
__________________________________
Akron 23 25 - 48
Miami 15 35 - 50
__________________________________
Technical fouls: Akron 1 (Team). A: 3,349.
Officials: Tom Clark, John Heatly, Rashan Michel.
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Miami endures strange ending
