DAYTON, Ohio – The Miami RedHawks had a point to prove Wednesday. And they did it in style.
Eian Elmer had 23 and Brant Byers added 19 as No. 11 Miami used a 3-point barrage to beat No. 11 SMU, 89-79, in the final First Four contest Wednesday night in Dayton, Ohio. No more doubting if the RedHawks deserve to be in the NCAA tournament field. No more wondering if they could beat a team from a Power-4 conference. They took several shots from a bigger, stronger team Wednesday night and they were the last team standing.
The RedHawks advance to play No. 6 seed Tennessee in a Midwest Region first round game Friday afternoon in Philadelphia. The last RedHawks tournament came 27 years ago when, led by Wally Szczerbiak, the RedHawks defeated Washington 59-58 in the first round before later defeating Utah in the second round to reach the Sweet Sixteen.
“The message I gave our guys before the game was they should leave no doubt with who the more attacking team was, and I thought that was very evident from the jump ball all the way to the end of the game,” Miami coach Travis Steele said. “Very proud of our guys, but obviously there’s a lot to be done yet.”
The RedHawks had a heavily-partisan crowd of 11,002 on their side inside University of Dayton Arena, just 40 miles east of Miami’s Oxford, Ohio campus. Last year, Xavier used the same energy from their Cincinnati fan base to rally past Texas in a First Four game.
“Really appreciated all the Miami fans showing out,” Steele said. “In a lot of ways, it was a home game for us. It’s such a unique opportunity to come watch an NCAA Tournament game. We’re only 50 minutes away from campus, so very, very appreciative of that.”
Elmer’s dunk with a minute remaining put an exclamation on Miami’s 32nd win in 33 games.
“It was definitely a great feeling,” Elmer said. “Coach drew up the play, wanted me to put an exclamation point on our game. I’m thankful for that. I have a lot of people that came here to support, so it was a good feeling to do that in front of them.”
Luke Skaljac added 17 and Almar Atlason had 12 as Miami (32-1) rebounded from its only loss of the season – a setback to UMass in the Mid-American Conference quarterfinals – to post its first NCAA tournament win since 1999. Miami finished 16-of-41 from 3-point range.
Maybe the biggest factor Wednesday was Miami playing for themselves, not to prove to anyone they belonged in the tournament. They already knew they belonged in the field of 68.
“Yeah, I would agree with that,” Skaljac said. “I mean, we know we’re not focused on that type of stuff, what the media and fans and stuff have to say. We know who we have inside the locker room. It was more just proving it to ourselves that we belong, which we believed all the way.
“Piggybacking off what he said, we’re not really focused on proving whether we belong honestly,” Elmer said. “Everybody in the locker room thinks we do. Everybody in Oxford thinks we do. I just think if anything we’re just going to go out there, play our hardest and have fun.”
Jaden Toombs had 20 points and 11 rebounds while Jaron Pierre Jr. added 18 for SMU (20-14), which was denied its first tournament win since 1988. Playing without the injured B.J. Edwards, the ACC leader in steals, SMU had trouble containing Miami’s perimeter game.
The RedHawks converted 10-of-25 attempts from beyond the arc to take a 43-34 halftime lead. Edwards, who also averaged 12.7 points per game, tested his injured ankle but could not go. SMU fell to 1-6 in seven games since Feb. 25 without him in the lineup.
Miami used a 13-0 run in the second half to break a 50-50 tie after SMU had rallied to take a brief 49-48 lead six minutes into the second half. SMU cut the Miami lead to seven on a 7-0 run but Elmer drained a three with four minutes remaining to pout the lead back to 10. Elmer drained another three 53 seconds later to help put the game away.
The play of the first half came with just over eight minutes remaining on a Luke Skaljac steal. Antwone Woolfolk picked up the loose ball and his pass up ahead to an open Peter Suder was too long. Suder gathered the ball as he was headed out of bounds, threw the ball backwards off the court and off the foot of SMU’s Corey Washington to Eian Elmer, who gathered and in one motion finished the break with a layup, bringing the partisan Miami crowd to a roar.
“We have great players. I’ve been saying this the whole year, but we have better human beings,” Steele added. “Our guys play for one another, play the right way. I think we finished with 20 assists, four turnovers on the game. My goal was to get up at least 40 threes. We shot 41 threes. And I felt like if we could just neutralize them on the glass — because they are so big and they’re athletic and they’re tough, I thought we’d give ourselves a really good opportunity to come away with a win, which we ended up being even on the glass 35-35.”
That layup was part of an 11-0 Miami run, with Elmer accounting for all 11 points, including three 3-point field goals.
Boopie Miller had eight points in the first half, including a basket that put him over the 2,000-point plateau. Miller had five points in a 7-0 surge that cut Miami’s lead to 34-32 with two minutes left.
Miami took several punches in the second half and even trailed briefly. But they played like a veteran team that knew they were going to win. That mindset is gold in March.
“Just push your chips all in. Attack. We deserved the moment,” Steele said. “Our guys deserved to be in this position. They’ve earned that right. The hay was in the barn. We prepared the right way over the last couple days. Just go attack, man. I felt like we were the better team going into the game, and I think our guys have that real belief. And I’ve said that a lot, that’s the most powerful thing you can have is belief. And our guys always feel like we’re going to win.”
