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ATHENS, Ohio – The Miami University women’s basketball team fell in its regular season finale to Ohio, 75-60, on Saturday. Freshman guard Kayla Brown led the RedHawks with 19 points in the contest. Miami is now 7-22 on the season and finishes 4-14 in the Mid-American Conference. The Bobcats are 25-4 on the season and are the MAC regular season champion at 16-2.
After an eventful final day of MAC action, the RedHawks learned their postseason fate. Miami is the 10th seed in the MAC Tournament and will play seventh seed Toledo on Monday at 7 p.m. in Savage Arena. The Rockets finished the season 10-8 in the MAC. The teams last met on Jan.3 with Toledo coming away with a 63-53 win.
In Saturday’s game, both teams came out of the gate struggling from the field. Brown hit a jumper and a pair of free throws, but the Bobcats built an 8-4 lead with 12:59 left in the half. Ohio caught fire from behind the arc at that point, draining three shots from behind the arc as part of a 16-2 run that gave it a 24-6 lead with 8:19 to go.
Redshirt junior forward Tamira Ford hit a pair of layups, while freshman forward Molly McDonagh hit one of her own to make it 33-16 with 3:38 to go. Junior forward Hannah McCue drained a jumper late, but the Bobcats took a 40-19 lead into the halftime break.
The teams traded buckets during the early portion of the second half. Brown hit a layup, while McCue and freshman guard Jazz Smith each hit three-pointers to cut the deficit to 18 at 51-33. Toledo followed with an 11-6 run to push the advantage to 23 at 62-39 with 10:20 to go.
The RedHawks kept fighting as Brown got the offense going with another three-pointer. Layups from McDonagh and Brown cut the deficit to 17 at 65-48. Miami would hit some free throws late, but the Bobcats held on for a 75-60 win.
In addition to Brown’s 19 points, McDonagh finished with a career-high 10. Freshman guard Baleigh Reid was solid with nine points and a career-high eight rebounds. The RedHawks struggled from the field on Saturday, shooting 27.1 percent (16-for-59). The Bobcats used hot shooting at 49.0 percent (25-for-51) to overcome Miami’s 45-31 rebounding advantage. Ohio was led by Kiyanna Black with 18 points.
Miami will now attempt to capture the MAC Tournament Championship for the second time in school history. If the RedHawks can defeat Toledo on Monday, they will advance to Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland where they will take on the winner of sixth seed Eastern Michigan and 11th seed Kent State on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m.
