March 1, 2006
Box Score
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio--Behind a solid 73-59 win, Miami University's men's basketball team recorded its most wins in Mid-American Conference action since 1998-99 and ended an eight-game losing streak at Bowling Green State University's Anderson Arena on Wednesday evening. With the win, the RedHawks improved to 17-9 overall and 13-4 in league play, while the Falcons dropped to 9-19 overall and 5-12 in MAC action.
After a Martin Samarco 3-point at the 16:11 mark to give Bowling Green a 5-3 lead, Josh Hausfeld and Monty St. Clair nailed treys and Tim Pollitz added a jumper to give the RedHawks a lead they would not relinquish. The Falcons were able to close within one by the 11:08, but Miami staged a 21-6 surge behind a trio of William Hatcher treys to post a 32-16 lead with 2:46 to play in the first half. Bowling Green was able to close the gap to 11 points with 31 seconds left, but a three-point play by Tim Pollitz with three seconds left to give Miami the 37-23 lead at the half.
A three-point play by Nathan Peavy with 16:31 remaining in the second half gave Miami a 15-point lead, 44-29. Bowling Green persistently chipped away at the RedHawk lead on a 17-3 run from the 15:32 mark to the 8:49 mark to close within one of Miami, 47-46. Chad Troyer drained a 3-pointer to put the RedHawks up four and hit another one with 5:49 to play to extend the RedHawk lead to 10 points, 58-48. Miami hit 9-of-10 free throws down the stretch to extend its lead to 17 points, while Hatcher tossed in a layup with 1:15 remaining to give Miami its largest lead of the game, 73-54. The Falcons hit a trey and layup over the final 57 seconds of the game to make the final margin 14 points, 73-59.
Miami shot a scorching 60.9 percent from the field, including 87.5 percent from 3-point range, in the first half and 56.8 percent from the field and 64.3 percent from 3-point range for the game.
Tim Pollitz paced Miami with 18 points, going 7-of-11 from the field and 4-for-4 from the free-throw line. Pollitz also grabbed a game-best eight boards and dished out six assists. Hatcher added 17 points and five assists, while Peavy tallied 11 points and Troyer chipped in 10 points.
Samarco led all players with 24 points, while Mawel Soler added 10 points.
Miami concludes the regular-season at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 4, hosting Buffalo. The RedHawks will honor their three seniors: William Hatcher, Josh Hausfeld and Nate VanderSluis prior to tip-off.
Notes: Miami University senior center Nate VanderSluis sat out the Bowling Green game and will be out for an indefinite period of time for precautionary reasons due to a medical condition, which is currently under further evaluation.
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