DaytonDailyNews.com

OXFORD — The Indiana State Sycamores probably figured that if they held Michael Bramos and Tim Pollitz below their respective scoring averages, they'd have an excellent chance of walking out of Millett Hall winners Tuesday night.

As a tandem, Bramos and Pollitz rank 14th in the nation in scoring with 38.8 points per game.

Yet at halftime, the Sycamores, having held Miami's powerful 1-2 punch to a grand total of six points, found themselves trailing 34-24.

Bramos later erupted for

11 straight points in the second half, and he and Pollitz finished with a respectable 29 points in Miami's 74-58 victory.

It wasn't that Indiana State shut down Bramos and Pollitz over the first 20 minutes. Miami's offense was, simply, more balanced than it had been in a very long time. Seven different players took at least three shots in the first half, and nobody took more than five.

"Everybody has been working on their shots," Bramos said. "Everybody took it upon themselves (to improve)."

Don't forget about Eric

Coles said one of the keys to Miami's victory was the play off the bench of Eric Pollitz, the lesser known of the Pollitz twins.

Indiana State's Marico Stinson had scored nine quick points against Bramos, so Coles pulled Bramos for a few minutes and put Pollitz on Stinson.

Stinson finished the game with nine points.

"To me, Eric Pollitz was the player of the game," Coles said. "He went in for one of our two best players, who wasn't on his game at first, and added to the team."

Eric Pollitz also went

2-for-2 from the 3-point line.

Quotable

• Miami coach Charlie Coles: "Our players have been in some unusually tough games, and I knew this would be a tough game ... I knew our guys were going to need to be motivated because, let's face it, some of these guys have been playing a lot of minutes. When you're going against some big, strong people, you've got to watch out that you don't run into mental of physical fatigue, or both. I'm very happy with the fact that we did accept the challenge."

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2197 or pconrad@coxohio.com.