Miami University
Wright State
Miami Falls to Wright State During Class at Court Game
12/9/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 9, 2009
OXFORD, Ohio - With 1,500 elementary students in the stands for the second annual "Class at the Court", the RedHawks fought hard against Wright State Wednesday afternoon, but fell short by a 75-68 score. Courtney Osborn led Miami with a career-high 26 points on 9-for-16 shooting. The RedHawks fall to 1-7 on the year, while the Raiders improve to 4-3.
Maggie Boyer hit a jumper and Osborn followed with a three-pointer to jump Miami to a 5-0 lead. Osborn and Lillian Pitts each continued the RedHawk attack with jumpers, but Wright State fought back to tie the score at 11. With 14:27 left in the first half, the Raiders' Maria Bennett hit a three-pointer to give Wright State a 14-11 lead. Then the power went out.
The high winds in the Oxford area had knocked out power to the entire town, including the Miami campus. The band and cheerleaders kept the elementary students entertained while the teams patiently waited for power to be restored. After about 15 minutes, the power came back on, the teams re-warmed up and the game resumed.
Both teams came out of the outage with their shots having gone cold. With Wright State leading 22-17 with 7:06 remaining, Kirsten Olowinski scored a layup to pull Miami within three. The teams traded baskets until it was 27-24 Wright State at the 3:12 mark. The Raiders expanded the lead to seven with two quick baskets, but a free throw from Courtney Reed and another layup from Olowinski closed the gap to four at 31-27. Paige Lowe followed with a shot at the buzzer to give the Raiders a 33-27 lead at halftime.
Wright State hit a three-pointer to begin the second half with its largest lead at 36-27. Miami responded with a 9-0 run off a Boyer, Osborn and Ashleigh Brown jumpers, as well as an Osborn three-pointer to tie the score at 36. The Raiders broke the run with a trey of their own, but Boyer hit yet another three to retie the score at 39 with 15:40 remaining.
With the score tied at 41, Wright State went on a 12-6 run to go ahead, 53-47. An Osborn free throw and a Rachael Hencke layup pulled Miami to within three, but the Raiders put together an 18-7 run over the next six minutes to establish an 11-point advantage at 71-60 with 1:17 remaining. Osborn and Brown tried to get Miami back into it with three-point baskets, but Wright State hit its free throws down the stretch and hung on for the 75-68 victory.
In addition to Osborn's 26 points, Olowinski had a career-high 14 points and eight rebounds, while Boyer chipped in 13 points. The RedHawks hit a season-high 46.6 percent of their shots (27-for-58), but Wright State hit its shots at a 53.3 percent clip (24-for-45). The Raiders were also 22-for-26 from the free throw line, compared to 9-for-14 for Miami. Wright State was led by Ta-myra Davis with 15 points.
Miami returns to action on Saturday when it hosts 20th-ranked Dayton at 2 p.m.
