HAMILTON — The Miami University Hamilton women’s basketball team is getting a boost from a couple of familiar faces.
Jessica Clark scored a game-high 21 points on Senior Day, Sydney Lockard had 15, Abby Mahan added 14 and the Harriers routed Andrews 98-26 to close out their home regular season stint Sunday afternoon.
Miami-Hamilton has won five out of its last six — including four straight — and Lakota West graduates Leah Abribat, Beri Ngwa and Clark have played a big part.
“Those girls were college ready,” said MUH fifth-year coach Ross Tonyan, whose Harriers are ranked second in Division II of the United States College Athletic Association. “There’s a lot of things you have to teach other girls from other schools that you don’t have to teach them. They just know.”
Miami Hamilton — which had 12 players hit the scoring column on Sunday — is 7-2 at home and 14-11 overall.
The Harriers wrap up their regular season at UC Clermont on Wednesday and will be anticipating a USCAA tournament berth.
“Things are going really well,” Tonyan said. “We have an incredible group of girls. They show up every day and work hard on the court.”
Abribat, a sophomore, scores 7.4 points a contest, while Ngwa, a freshman, averages 5.2 points and 2.1 assists a game. Clark tied her season high on Sunday and averages 4.2 points a game.
“Our team trusts our basketball IQ,” Clark said, noting that her skill set was molded from her playing days at Lakota West and coach Andy Fishman. “That’s mainly because of where we came from.
“There’s really nothing you can do wrong on this team right now,” Clark added. “The coaching staff and the team backs you up every single time out on the court. The only thing you’re getting yelled at for is not shooting the open shot.”
The Harriers have the green light. They’re one of the top 3-point shooting teams in the USCAA, sinking a conference-best eight treys a game.
Sophomore A’Vyonna Kinsey (Winton Woods), junior Shalaya Heath (Northmont) and sophomore Laci Reinhart (Dixie Heights) are Miami-Hamilton’s top three scorers.
“I can’t say enough about how hard they work,” Tonyan said. “They do an incredible job, and they’re really coming together and doing the right things.”
Kinsey (13 ppg) and Reinhart (9.5 ppg) are the team captains, Tonyan said. Heath averages 10.4 points an outing.
“I can’t say enough about their leadership,” Tonyan said. “AV (Kinsey) is like our heartbeat, and she has a lot of passion. She can do everything — takes charges, sets screens, scores, and she will assist it. She does a little bit of everything
“Laci is as sound and as hardworking as it can get,” Tonyan added. “She will score 12 points and you won’t realize that she has 12 points. She’s one of those kids who can score better than anybody. She has great on-ball defense. She’s one of the biggest reasons we are at where we are at. She’s set us in the trajectory we’re at right now.
“Shalaya is the big post player we’ve been missing for years. She is such a great teammate. She’s got great group energy and is always cheering for her teammates.”
Tonyan said Miami-Hamilton’s strength of schedule has prepped the program for a potential deep run in the postseason.
“We’ve won the games at our level,” the coach said. “We play an incredible schedule. We’ve played plenty of NAIA schools — a couple of them ran over us, but for the most part, we held our own against them.
“The polls really show others that we can play some basketball.”
MUH hung with Division I Detroit Mercy before falling 91-84 earlier in the season. The Harriers are 3-2 against Division III programs and 8-1 at the USCAA level.
That, according to Tonyan, is all the motivation his Harriers need to reach their goal.
“As long as they continue to do what they’re doing, we have as good of a chance as anybody to hold up that national trophy at the end of the year.”
