OXFORD, Ohio — Now the lights get really bright.
The nation’s lone remaining unbeaten team looks to raise their winning streak to 25 when the No. 23 Miami RedHawks play host to its archrival Ohio in Mid-American Conference play Friday night in Oxford, Ohio in a game on ESPN at 9 p.m. ET.
The spotlight began to get warm when Miami won back-to-back overtime games against Buffalo and at Kent State. Then they came home and fell behind by 10 points early to UMass before rallying in the second half and squeaking by the Minutemen, 86-84, before 9,223 at Millett Hall.
Then four days later, a record crowd of over 10,000 turned out at Millett to watch the RedHawks pull away from Northern Illnois in an 85-61 win. After a 73-71 nail-biter at Buffalo, Miami (24-0, 11-0) held off a rally from Marshall to post a 90-74 road win on Saturday while Ohio (13-12, 7-5) traveled to Virginia Saturday and dropped a 78-72 decision to Old Dominion. Both schools took a break from conference action to play in the MAC-Sun Belt Conference Challenge over the weekend.
Miami is playing the first of only two home games in February, with the other coming on Feb. 20 against Bowling Green. Five of Miami’s seven games this month come on the road and Miami has just two home games remaining at Millett after Friday’s “Battle of the Bricks” in Oxford.
When No. 1 Arizona fell at Kansas on Monday night, the RedHawks were left as the only unbeaten team in Division I men’s basketball. In addition to being the only team without a loss, Miami has the nation’s longest active winning streak at 24, with No. 18 Saint Louis second at 17 straight.
Miami already has set Mid-American Conference records for the best start and the longest winning streak, breaking the 21-game streak recorded by Kent State in the 2001-02 season. They have the longest win streak to start a season since Gonzaga won its first 31 games before losing in the national championship game.
On Saturday at Marshall, the RedHawks built a 24-point first-half lead before watching the Herd cut it to nine twice in the second half. But Marshall could get no closer as Miami pulled away late. If the RedHawks have proven anything over this perfect and unprecedented run in program history, it’s that they embrace the pressure.
Ohio is a team they should handle but Miami struggled at times with UMass before rallying and they had trouble pulling away from NIU before posting the 24-point win.
“That’s been our group all year. We’re totally unflappable,” Miami coach Travis Steele said. “Calm, cool, collected, confident. We just started executing a little bit better on offense and defense and were able to stretch it out again.”
Miami has improved its defense over the last four games since escaping back-to-back overtime games in which the opponent scored over a 100 points in each contest.
“We score a lot of different ways and have a clear identity on the offensive end, but you’ve got to have an identity on defense too,” Steele said. “I think our defensive identity is definitely coming to life the last couple games.”
Since starting point guard Evan Ipsaro was lost for the season with a torn ACL 12 games in, Miami has compensated with a balanced scoring attack. Brant Byers (14.8 ppg) and Peter Suder (14.2) have picked up the scoring slack while Antwone Woolfolk has been a force in the paint, averaging 10.4 points and 5.5 rebounds a contest.
In the win over Marshall, Eian Elmer led the way with 18 points, including 4-for-4 from 3-point range. The game marked the 18th time this season Miami shot 50% or better from the field, knocking down 33-of-59 shots.
The RedHawks haven’t had a team in program history that can shoot the ball as well as this one. Miami ranks among the top of the nation in numerous statistical categories heading into this game, which includes being first in the country in effective field goal percentage (0.626), first in field goal percentage (53.6), first in scoring offense (92.7), sixth in three-point percentage (39.8), eighth in scoring margin (18.4), 19th in threes per game (10.8), 30th in defensive rebounds per game (27.46), 31st in free throw percentage (76.8), 37th in assists per game (17.1), 39th in assist/turnover ratio (1.56) and 59th in bench points per game (28.00).
Luke Skaljac ranks third in the MAC and 45th nationally in assist/turnover ratio. Skaljac leads the team with a ratio of 2.84. Senior guard Peter Suder ranks fifth in the MAC and 57th in the country from the field at 55.9%.
Ohio shot 47% from the field but was just 8-of-25 from beyond the arc and 10-of-15 from the line in the disappointing loss at Old Dominion. Leading scorer Jackson Paveletzke was held to just seven points, but he still leads the Bobcats in scoring at 16.6 points per game.
Aidan Hadaway is averaging 14.2 points a contest while Javan Simmons is the other leading scorer in double figures at 14 points per game, a figure he reached in the loss at Old Dominion.
