OXFORD, Ohio – Despite four players scoring in double figures, the Miami men's basketball team was unable to keep pace with a hot-shooting Northern Illinois squad in an 83-70 setback on Tuesday night.
The RedHawks drop to 8-7 on the season and 0-2 in Mid-American Conference play with the loss.
Teams traded scores in the early going with a
Jalen Adaway trifecta and old fashioned three-point play by
Dalonte Brown answering hoops by Levi Bradley to stake MU to an early 6-4 lead.
Brown's hoop sparked an 11-4 run that put the Red & White on top by a 14-8 count with six minutes gone by. After the Huskies (9-6, 2-0 MAC) pulled within a bucket at 14-12, a second-chance three by
Darrian Ringo bumped the lead back to five midway through the opening frame.
NIU countered with eight-straight points to grab a 20-17 advantage, but a deft defensive play by Ringo led to a tying three by Brown at the other end. The senior guard perfectly read and stole an NIU inbounds pass and saved it before he went out of bounds before he fed Brown behind the arc.
The Huskies netted the next four points and then both teams began to find their rhythm from beyond the arc. MU hit 6-for-11 from long range while NIU connected on 7-of-12 three-pointers. While Miami pulled within three a few times down the stretch, Northern Illinois eventually took a 43-35 lead into the locker room at the half.
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Nike Sibande three pulled Miami within five on the opening possession of the second half, but Northern Illinois eventually grew its lead to 51-40 roughly three minutes into the period. MU's deficit sat between six and 11 for the next 10 minutes as NIU kept answering potential momentum swinging buckets by the Red & White.
The gap got cut to seven (67-60) with 5:40 remaining, but NIU put the contest away with a 9-2 spurt.
The Huskies shot 57.7 percent from the floor while the RedHawks countered with 43.1 percent shooting. NIU hit 9-of-18 from beyond the arc vs. MU's 8-of-27 figure from three. Sibande led four RedHawks in double figures with 16 points while Ringo added 14 points and finished with six steals and five assists. Brown (12 points) and Bowman (10 points) also finished in double figures with Bowman also grabbing a team-high six rebounds.
Miami returns to action on Saturday when it faces 19th-ranked Buffalo on the road at noon. That contest airs nationally on CBS Sports Network.
