Miami aims to extend streak

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By Pete Conrad, Staff Writer 2:07 AM Sunday, February 14, 2010

OXFORD — Four years have passed since Miami University’s basketball team has won six straight games. It’s a rare feat, something the RedHawks have done only five times in Charlie Coles’ 14 years as head coach.

Still, that isn’t so much what the RedHawks are craving today, Feb. 14, when they put their five-game streak on the line against the Bowling Green Falcons. It’s that feeling of arrival, of having willed themselves physically, mentally and emotionally into a good place at long last.

The way the RedHawks look at it, they’ve come too far and paid too heavy a price to give it up now.

“It feels great,” Miami sophomore forward Julian Mavunga said, “because we put in a lot of work in our nonconference season against tough teams. To be able to turn it around was not an easy thing to do and shows a sign of toughness for us. You look at us now, you wouldn’t believe we were 3-11.”

The RedHawks begin the homestretch of their regular season today, switching back to the East Division portion of their Mid-American Conference schedule, just one game out of first place.

The league’s overall title chase has turned into a dogfight among Kent State (9-2 in the MAC), Miami (8-3) and Akron (8-3).

Winning this title and the No. 1 seed to next month’s MAC tournament won’t be easy for Miami. Three of its final five league games are on the road, including a Feb. 27 showdown at Kent State.

“I think we’re OK,” Miami senior guard Kenny Hayes said. “We have to get better, especially after (the Toledo game, a 55-47 win over a 3-22 team). Bowling Green, that’s going to be a tough game. It’s always tough to win at Bowling Green.”

The RedHawks have won just two of their last 12 games at Anderson Arena, including a 67-60 victory last year.

“We have to understand we’re playing for something right now,” Hayes said. “At the beginning of the year a lot of people didn’t think we’d be competing for a championship.”

Miami’s longest winning streak under Coles came in his first season in Oxford, when the RedHawks took an eight-game streak into the 1997 NCAA tournament. Miami lost in the first round to Clemson 68-56.

Since that season Miami has had three seven-game streaks (1998-99, broken by Toledo; 2004-05, broken by Ohio; and 2005-06, broken by Kent State) and a six-game streak (1997-98, broken by Syracuse).

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