Feb. 27, 2005
Box Score
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio--Despite a hard-fought effort where Miami led for the first 38:14 of the game, the RedHawks suffered a 57-56 loss at Bowling Green on Sunday afternoon when Josh Almanson sunk a jumper with six seconds remaining.
Miami drops to 17-8 overall and 11-5 in Mid-American Conference play, while Bowling Green moves to 17-8 overall and 10-6 in MAC action.
Junior guard William Hatcher scored Miami's first seven points of the game, hitting a 3-pointer and two jumpers, to lift Miami to a 7-2 lead by the 16:12 mark in the first half. Bowling Green was able to get within four, 18-14, with 8:24 left in the first, but Miami staged a 13-4 run to post a 13-point lead with 3:11 remaining, 31-18. Sophomore center Monty St. Clair knocked down two treys during the surge. A couple of costly RedHawk turnovers led to Falcon buckets over the final minutes of the first stanza, which allowed Bowling Green to cut the RedHawk lead to eight at the half, 35-27.
The Falcons continued to surge to start the second half when Almanson hit a jumper and John Reimold tossed in a layup to further shrink the RedHawk lead to four with 17:11 left, 35-31. St. Clair drained another trey at the 16:55 mark to up the Miami lead to seven, but the Falcons closed within two by the 14:09 mark, 40-38. Miami was again able to build its lead back to seven when junior guard Josh Hausfeld sunk a 3-pointer with 9:15 left, 49-42. Another Hausfeld 3-pointer put Miami up six with 7:31 remaining, 52-46, however, Bowling Green scored five unanswered points to cut the lead to one with 4:07 remaining, 52-51. Senior guard Chet Mason tipped away a BGSU pass and took the ball down the floor, punctuating the play with a dunk to put Miami up 54-51. A jumper by Almanson and one made free throw apiece by Cory Eyink and Scott Vandermeer handed the Falcons their first lead of the game with 1:15 remaining, 55-54. Mason knocked down both of his free-throw attempts to give Miami a one-point edge with a minute remaining, 56-55, but Almanson hit a jumper with six seconds left to seize the game for the Falcons, 57-56.
Miami's Hatcher and Bowling Green's Almanson led all scorers with 16 points apiece. Senior forward Danny Horace added 10 points for the RedHawks, while Mason led all players with 10 rebounds.
For Bowling Green, Steven Wright tallied 14 points and Reimold added 12, while John Floyd noched 10 of the Falcons' 18 assists.
The game was delayed more than an hour, after a backboard was shattered in pre-game warm-ups. This was Miami's second straight loss, a first for the RedHawks this season.
Miami returns to Millett Hall for its last regular-season home game on Wednesday, March 2 in a critical battle with Kent State. Game time is 7 p.m.
