DaytonDailyNews.com

OXFORD — With the seconds ticking away in a one-point game, Miami University men's basketball coach Charlie Coles was thinking about ... the television audience?

Coles had just called a timeout with 29.1 seconds remaining to set up a final play. But when Xavier surprised him by coming out of the timeout in a zone defense, Coles said he decided not to call another timeout to set up a new play because he didn't want to anger the people watching at home on Fox Sports Net.

"If I'm watching a game on TV and there's like three timeouts within 20 seconds, I'm mad," Coles said. "Let's just ... see what happens."

What happened was his RedHawks struggled to find a decent shot, settling for a 24-foot bomb by Michael Bramos.

"I'm thinking, 'Is that the best shot we can get?' " Coles said.

But Xavier's Jason Love bailed out the RedHawks by fouling Bramos with 6 seconds left on the clock.

What was Coles thinking then?

"Whoa, Christmas time!"

Bramos went to the line and calmly sank all three free throws to provide the winning margin.

"We've got a default zone offense, and with a zone offense, you basically just take what the defense gives you," Bramos said. "It's total freelancing, but there is some freedom. I just moved into an open space."

Kenny's coming out: Miami junior Kenny Hayes came up huge in his RedHawk debut.

The Cincinnati State transfer had 18 points, five rebounds, two assists and just one turnover in 38 minutes.

"I'm not gonna lie. I was so nervous at the beginning of the game," said Hayes, who missed six of his first seven shots. "I missed a couple of my first shots, and Bramos and Tim (Pollitz) told me to keep my confidence up and keep shooting."

Dierkers big, too: Miami junior Tyler Dierkers didn't score a point Tuesday night, but he was the first player Coles mentioned in the postgame news conference.

"I thought Tyler Dierkers, in the second half, was all over the place," Coles said of the Moeller High graduate, who grabbed all six of his rebounds in the second half. "I know you want to talk about Bramos and Hayes and Tim Pollitz. But guys like (Dierkers) allow those other guys to play."

Crowd deserves credit: Tuesday's attendance was 6,140, the largest at Millett Hall since the 2004 season opener against Purdue.

"I thought our crowd was huge tonight," Bramos said. "They were real loud the whole game, even when we got down 11. They stuck with us the whole time. I think part of the victory goes to them, too, because we really fed off their energy."