CLEVELAND — The Miami University men’s basketball team continued its historic season on a winning note.
Kam Craft scored 24 points and the second-seeded RedHawks got plenty of production off the bench to help them beat the No. 7 Eastern Michigan Eagles 81-75 in the quarterfinals of the Mid-American Conference Tournament on Thursday night at Rocket Arena.
Miami (24-8) got 35 points from its bench — including 15 by Reece Potter and 14 by Evan Ipsaro.
“They were tremendous,” RedHawks coach Travis Steele said. “Evan’s toughness — he’s a warrior. He’s built for this. He’s built for these moments. I’ve known him forever since he was little. He’s a winner.
“And Reece Potter was phenomenal. Offensively, he was really good. But defensively, on Da’Sean Nelson — what him and Antwone Woolfolk did — tremendous job. Because Da’Sean’s as good as any big in our league.”
Miami, which has won three in a row and five of its last six, plays Kent State in the semifinals at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Cleveland. Miami won its first MAC Tournament game in more than 15 years.
The RedHawks scored the game’s first nine points, holding the Eagles scoreless for 3:42. EMU’s Christian Henry hit a jump shot to tie it at 16-16 with just under 10 minutes remaining in the first half.
Miami and Eastern Michigan went into the halftime break tied at 29-29.
“I thought our defense was tremendous in the first half,” Steele said. “I thought we set back basketball about 30 or 40 years with how we played on offense. But we made some good shots early. Then I think our guys got frustrated, and so we started dribbling a little too much.
“Once we got back at halftime, I said, ‘Just trust the offense a little bit. Let it breathe.’ And man, all of a sudden, again our rhythm started to appear there in the second half. We got some great looks.”
The lead was never more than four points either direction in the second half until Ipsaro made two free throws to give Miami a 64-59 lead with 6:01 left to play.
The RedHawks went on a 10-0 run to build a 74-61 advantage — which was the largest lead of the game — with 3:21remaining. Eastern Michigan never got within six the rest of the way.
Kraft scored 16 of his points in the second half. Miami outrebounded Eastern Michigan 45-32.
Henry finished with 24 points for the Eagles (16-16), while Jalen Terry had 21 and Nelson had 17. Miami’s Peter Suder had a career-high 10 assists, adding seven points and seven rebounds.
