Lone unbeaten No. 23 Miami (Ohio) defends streak against rival Ohio
The nation's lone remaining unbeaten team looks to raise its winning streak to 25 when No. 23 Miami (Ohio) plays host to its archrival Ohio in Mid-American Conference play Friday night in Oxford.
Both schools took a break from conference action to play in the MAC-Sun Belt Conference Challenge over the weekend.
Miami (24-0, 11-0 MAC) held off a rally from Marshall to post a 90-74 road win Saturday, while Ohio (13-12, 7-5) traveled to Norfolk, Va., on Saturday and dropped a 78-72 decision to Old Dominion.
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. The RedHawks have the longest win streak to start a season since Gonzaga won its first 31 games before losing in the 2021 national championship game.
On Saturday at Marshall, the RedHawks built a 24-point first-half lead before watching the Thundering Herd cut it to nine twice in the second half. But Marshall could get no closer as Miami pulled away late for the wire-to-wire victory.
"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 12 games into the season due to a torn ACL, 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.
Ohio shot 46.6% from the field (27 of 58) 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 player in double figures at 14 points per game, a figure he reached in the loss at the Monarchs.
"We've done well in spurts in our losses and, obviously, it's not good enough to win a game and it's about putting it together, you know, playing that complete 40 minutes," Ohio coach Jeff Boals said on Feb. 3. "Just a mindset of continuing to get better, coming in and preparing the right way."