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Miami freshman making impact

Courtney Osborn’s big scoring presence has helped shape young RedHawks team.

Jeffrey Sabo Miami University Miami's Courtney Osborn is the MAC’s second-leading scorer with 19.6 points per game.

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By Pete Conrad, Staff Writer Updated 7:25 AM Friday, January 15, 2010

OXFORD — Courtney Osborn, one of Indiana’s most sought-after women’s basketball recruits in 2008, had narrowed the field of recruiters down to Miami University and Wisconsin.

A busted nose helped make up her mind.

Yes, Miami coach Maria Fantanarosa should be forever grateful to the player who threw that elbow during a summer-league game.

Two months into her career as a RedHawk, the 5-foot-10 point guard from the Indianapolis suburb of Fishers not only is a leading candidate for Mid-American Conference Freshman of the Year, but also for MAC Player of the Year. That’s how good Osborn has been.

She is the MAC’s second-leading scorer with 19.6 points per game. She also is second in the league in 3-point shooting (2.69 per game), third in assists (3.9) and third in steals (2.63).

“I just wanted to come in and make a difference, whether it was playing 30 minutes a game or 3 minutes,” Osborn said. “I never imagined anything like this.”

And as Osborn pointed out, “I still have so much to learn.”

She isn’t alone. These RedHawks are a collection of mostly freshmen and sophomores, young enough and eager enough to have survived a 10-game losing streak from Nov. 15 to Dec. 22.

And now the RedHawks, 4-12 overall, are looking for their third MAC win in the last four games when they play Akron at Millett Hall at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 16.

“Our confidence and belief are still alive,” Fantanarosa said. “There is a lot of optimism right now around this team. We’re starting to build momentum.”

Osborn had been on Miami’s radar screen since her freshman year at Hamilton Southeastern High School, where she was ranked as the 19th-best point guard in the nation by ESPN.com.

“They never missed a summer game,” Osborn said of Fantanarosa and her staff. “At least one or a couple of the coaches were at every single game.

“I busted my nose open in one game,” she recalled. “I got an elbow to my nose and it just ripped it open. They wanted to give me stitches but I would have to be out for like a month or something. So they just bandaged it up for the day and I missed the next game that afternoon.

“(The Miami coaches) knew I wasn’t going to play, but Maria was right there in the front row,” Osborn said. “I kinda knew right then that Miami really wanted me and that it probably was the place for me.”

“I do that with all our recruits,” Fantanarosa said. “When we offer a scholarship, we’re going to stick by them.”

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