OXFORD — Enjulina Gonzalez played her style of game Saturday afternoon, and there wasn’t much the Ohio Bobcats could do about it.
Gonzalez scored a game-high 23 points, adding six rebounds and four steals, and the Miami RedHawks rolled to a 72-34 victory over Ohio inside a boisterous Millett Hall during One Miami Day.
“We definitely felt the crowd,” said Gonzalez, a sophomore guard who has scored in double figures 15-straight games dating back to Dec. 1. “It felt good to be home. Home court advantage is definitely real.
“We were feeding off of them, but most importantly, we were feeding off each other. And I think that’s even more special for us.”
Gonzalez has surpassed 20 points six different times — including a season-high 29 in a win at FIU. She has been named Mid-American Conference Player of the Week three times and currently ranks third in the MAC in scoring (16.9).
“I think we came out here, and we wanted to win,” Gonzalez said. “No matter what, we wanted it. When your team is locked in and on a different level, it just feels like everything is clicking.
“We’re communicating, we’re talking. Even when things are going bad, we’re still communicating. It’s just different. The vibe is different, and we’re just pushing through everything no matter if it’s good or bad — we’re going to fight through it.”
Miami went on an 18-0 run that was capped by a Maya Chandler jumper, which gave the RedHawks a 20-6 lead with 8:24 left in the second quarter. Chandler scored 15 of her 17 points in the period.
“Obviously, we turned it up,” Miami coach Glenn Box said. “Defensively, we were really good in gaps, and our activity was stellar. We did a great job of walling up and not fouling — something that we’ve really talked a lot about.”
The RedHawks outscored the Bobcats 42-20 in the second half and finished the game with 34 points in the paint.
“At halftime, our coach came in there, and he put an emphasis on just coming out strong because we were coming out slow,” Gonzalez said. “It doesn’t matter if they’re last, first, we’ve got to still come out strong and do what we’ve got to do. Whoever it was to get it started, that’s what I wanted to do. If I could go out there and score 30, I was going to score 30. If I had to get someone else started, then that’s what was going to happen.”
Miami (12-8, 5-5 MAC) snapped a two-game losing streak with the 38-point win — which was the largest margin of victory in the series against Ohio (4-16, 2-8 MAC) since beating its rival by 37 on Feb. 2, 1980.
A crowd of 2,011 watched it play out at Millett Hall on Saturday.
“For us to have that kind of energy was awesome,” Box said. “So hopefully, our people continue to get a little excited about the product that we’re putting out there and see what we’re trying to do and know that we’re trying to do it for them.
“I’m pleased with what I saw today, for sure. We needed to bounce back in a big way, and we did it.”
Saturday was the 102nd Battle of the Bricks dating all the way back to Jan. 24, 1975. Miami leads the all-time series 62-40 and is 37-14 all-time at home against the Bobcats.
Miami returns to action against Eastern Michigan on Wednesday at 7 p.m. inside Millett Hall.
