Tuesday, January 23, 2001
Miami 77, Western Michigan 50
Offense clicks even without Davis
By Carey Hoffman
Enquirer contributor
OXFORD — Even without their point guard, the Miami RedHawks have not been better offensively than Monday night.
Playing without the injured Doug Davis, Miami improvised in the backcourt so well that the RedHawks came away with a 77-50 victory over Western Michigan before 2,732 at Millett Hall.
The 77 points scored was a season high for Miami, as was the team's 57.4 percent shooting for the game. Miami (8-10, 4-3 MAC) now has back-to-back blowout wins, heading into the third game of its four-game homestand, a Wednesday night visit by Akron.
“We escaped, and I mean that,” Miami coach Charlie Coles said. “I had some real concerns going into the game, and I still have concerns.”
Davis' loss hurt Miami in some areas — the RedHawks finished with 13 turnovers, above their season average — but unexpectedly changed aspects of the game's matchups in Miami's favor. Western Michigan focused its defensive pressure on Miami's Jason Grunkemeyer, who was forced to play more than half the game out of position at point guard, but WMU's defense created opportunities for Miami's frontline on offense.
Four RedHawks finished in double figures in scoring, including forwards Alex Shorts (15 points) and Mike Ensminger (13 points, six rebounds, five assists).
Grunkemeyer added 11 points, while Larry Drake, who had played a total of only 16 minutes over Miami's last five games, broke loose at shooting guard. Drake made all five of his shots in the game, including three 3-point ers, to finish with a career-best 15 points.
Miami opened a 29-24 halftime lead on the strength of a 19-8 run in the final nine minutes.
Western Michigan led 16-10 just before the nature of Miami's lineup on the floor changed. First, Matt Jameson, Miami's the only healthy true point guard available, went to the bench with his second foul. Shortly thereafter, power forward and Miami leading scorer Alex Shorts followed.
But instead of floundering, Miami found new life on offense. With WMU trying to pressure the improvised backcourt pairing of Grunkemeyer and Drake, Miami began finding frontcourt players available going to the basket and took its first lead at 21-18 with 5:14 left in the half.
“They extended on defense quite a bit, and when we didn't turn the ball over, we got the ball down the floor and got a lot of easy layups,” Grunkemeyer said.
A 10-3 spurt to open the second half gave Miami its first double-digit lead of the night. Four straight foul shots by Juby Johnson and Alex Shorts gave Miami a 40-27 lead with 14:52 left in the game.
Western Michigan pulled back to within nine at 44-35, but Miami answered with a crushing 11-0 run that featured the story of the night — contributions throughout the lineup. Five baskets during that run came from five different players.
That gave Miami a 55-35 lead and it was never less than 15 the rest of the way.
Coles praised Drake's shooting and the overall game of Ensminger after the game, but singled out Grunkemeyer and his emergency duty at point guard for special praise.
“It's amazing about Jason, isn't it?,” Coles said. “We keep asking for more, and here's a guy a couple of years ago who was a specialist, a guy that kind of caught on. Scoring-wise, he probably hasn't scored as much as he would like to score, but if you think of everything Jason has done for the team this year, he's become a real leader.
“So tonight kind of further cemented that.”
WESTERN MICH (50)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Reynolds 21 1-9 2-3 1-2 2 2 4
Powell 31 6-11 1-2 1-2 0 1 14
Bro 25 1-3 1-3 3-5 0 0 3
Collum 31 4-9 2-3 3-8 3 4 11
Berry 24 1-5 4-4 0-1 0 1 7
T Slater 14 1-5 0-0 0-1 0 2 2
Carter 14 2-2 0-0 0-2 2 4 5
Cavette 6 0-1 0-0 0-0 2 2 0
Cleland 2 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Johnson 5 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 1 0
Kann 27 2-5 0-0 4-6 0 4 4
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 18-53 10-16 12-27 9 21 50
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.340, FT-.625. 3-Point Goals:
4-19, .211 (Reynolds 0-2, Powell 1-4, Collum 1-5,
Berry 1-4, T Slater 0-1, Carter 1-1, Cavette 0-1,
Cleland 0-1). Team rebounds: 1. Blocked shots:
None. Turnovers: 14 (Powell 3, Carter 2, Cavette
2, Collum 2, Reynolds 2, Berry, Bro, Johnson).
Steals: 6 (Powell 2, Bro, Cavette, Collum, Kann).
MIAMI (77)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Johnson 28 2-6 2-4 1-3 1 0 6
Shorts 25 6-12 3-3 1-4 3 3 15
Allendorf 11 0-1 2-2 0-2 0 0 2
Jameson 16 0-1 0-0 0-1 2 4 0
Grunkemeyer 36 3-5 4-4 0-4 5 2 11
Drake 26 5-5 2-2 0-1 0 1 15
Williams 2 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Helmers 2 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 3
Seals 11 2-4 0-0 1-3 0 1 4
Reed 13 3-4 2-2 1-4 0 5 8
Edwards 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Ensminger 27 5-6 3-3 1-6 5 4 13
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 27-47 18-20 5-28 16 20 77
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.574, FT-.900. 3-Point Goals:
5-11, .455 (Johnson 0-3, Grunkemeyer 1-2, Drake
3-3, Williams 0-2, Helmers 1-1). Team rebounds:
4. Blocked shots: 1 (Seals). Turnovers: 13
(Grunkemeyer 4, Shorts 3, Jameson 2, Ensminger,
Johnson, Reed, Seals). Steals: 6 (Drake,
Ensminger, Grunkemeyer, Johnson, Reed, Shorts).
__________________________________
Western Mich 24 26 - 50
Miami 29 48 - 77
__________________________________
Technical fouls: None. Officials: Randy Drury, Jd
Collins, Tim Fogarty.
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Miami 77, Western Michigan 50