DaytonDailyNews.com

CLEVELAND — This time there was no miracle finish for the Miami RedHawks.

A floating 13-foot jump shot by Kent State junior guard Al Fisher with 3.5 seconds remaining propelled the Golden Flashes past Miami 49-47 in the Mid-American Conference tournament semifinals Friday night, March 14.

Fisher, the MAC men's basketball player of the year, finished with 11 points for Kent State (27-6), which will face Akron in the championship game tonight at Quicken Loans Arena.

"We were just trying to get a quick shot up," Fisher said. "When everybody believes in you, it definitely takes a lot of the pressure off when the game is on the line."

Miami was the defending tournament champion after winning last year's title on a 3-pointer by Doug Penno. The RedHawks had a chance to tie this game, but a short, twisting jumper at the buzzer by Tim Pollitz fell just short.

"Whoo, it hurts, hurts," said Miami interim head coach Jermaine Henderson. "The first thing you have to do, you have to take your hat off to Kent. Everything we threw out there, they countered. Everything they threw out there, we countered."

The RedHawks originally had the ball under the Kent State basket with 3.5 seconds left, but two inbounds passes were knocked away by the Flashes, allowing Miami to move about 60 feet closer to its own basket for the final shot.

"(The plan) was for me to get the ball in the post and drive or (pass) back to (Michael) Bramos," Pollitz said after his last game as a RedHawk.

"We wanted to give up no 3, no foul," KSU coach Jim Christian said. "If they wanted to try anything, it was going to have to be a 2."

Pollitz, last year's tournament MVP, finished with a game-high 15 points and nine rebounds for the RedHawks (17-15).

"Let me salute Tim Pollitz for everything he's meant to me, to this program and to the league," Miami junior center Tyler Dierkers said. "There's no way we can replace him. He's a one-of-a-kind player."

The setback was yet another heartbreaker for Miami, which lost on last-second shots earlier this season to Dayton and Wright State, and fell in double-overtime to Western Michigan and Valparaiso.

A pair of 3-point baskets from an unlikely source, junior guard Jordan Mincy (who came into the game with eight 3-pointers this season and a 2.1 scoring average), helped the Flashes take a 25-23 halftime lead.

Miami stormed back in the second half and held three different three-point leads, the last one coming with 6:01 on the clock on an inside basket by Pollitz, which made it 43-40.

A put-back by Chris Singletary put the Flashes back on top 47-45 with 1:03 remaining, but Miami's Kenny Hayes answered with a driving lay-up with 34.6 seconds left.

"I want to salute our players for leaving it all out there. We certainly didn't come (to Cleveland) fully loaded," Henderson said, referring to the absence of head coach Charlie Coles, who did not make the trip because he underwent heart surgery earlier in the week.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2197

or pconrad@coxohio.com.