Miami (OH) men’s basketball defeated Eastern Michigan 81-75 in the quarterfinals of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) Tournament at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, on Thursday, winning their first game in Cleveland since 2010.
The RedHawks dominated the glass, outrebounding Eastern Michigan 45-32.
Miami’s bench also powered the win, outscoring EMU’s bench 35-8.
“Strength in numbers: We pride ourselves in that. We don’t necessarily see us as a bench thing – we think all nine guys could play anywhere in the country,” Miami sophomore center Reece Potter said postgame. “We call ourselves the bench mob, and we know once we come in, we need to provide that juice, provide that energy off the bench, and provide that fire.”
Miami junior guard Peter Suder finished with a career-high 10 assists and a season-high 10 rebounds, falling just three points shy of the second triple-double in RedHawks history.
Suder did all of that while not practicing all week going into the tournament.
“Peter’s such a warrior; he’s going to play. Is he 100 percent? No. [But] he’s going to play,” Miami head coach Travis Steele said postgame. “I told our staff going in: ‘If we can advance, Peter’s going to have a great advantage because he’s had a week off – he’s got fresh legs.'”
Miami redshirt sophomore wing Kam Craft and Eastern Michigan junior guard Christian Henry led all scorers with 24 points apiece. EMU senior guard Jalen Terry also scored 21 points and drained five 3-pointers.
The RedHawks opened the contest red hot, jumping out to an early 9-0 lead.
“We’re one of the best shooting teams in the country, so getting us going [early], I think, really helped us stay in the game,” Craft said postgame.
Eastern Michigan struggled out of the gates, missing their first five shots from the field.
However, the Eagles broke out of the drought, going on a 14-5 run to tie the game at 14 apiece just over halfway through the first half.
Later, an 11-3 run for EMU gave them a 27-24 lead with just under five minutes remaining in the half.
The two teams went into the locker rooms tied at 29 apiece at halftime.
The first 10 minutes of the second half were extremely back-and-forth. There were 12 lead changes and 12 ties throughout the game. Both teams heated up in the final 20 minutes, combining to score 98 points.
A huge 19-4 run for Miami over the span of five minutes gave the RedHawks a 74-61 lead with three minutes remaining.
“I thought in the second half that our offensive execution was tremendous,” Miami head coach Travis Steele said.
However, Eastern Michigan did not go down without a fight, going on a 9-2 run to come within six points with one minute remaining. It would not be enough, as Miami secured the six-point victory and advanced to the second round.
Next, the RedHawks will play Kent State in the semifinal round of the MAC Tournament at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.
“We built our team for this moment. The goal was obviously to make it to the NCAA tournament and advance [through] three games in three days here in Cleveland,” Steele said. “We’ve got to be at our best right now, so we play nine guys…it’s different guys, different nights for us. It does keep our guys mentally fresh and physically fresh…We didn’t come here just to win one game. The job’s not finished.”
