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StumbleuponCollege basketball Miami 70, Weber State 66
Hayes' four-point play boosts RedHawks in opener
Thursday, November 13, 2008
LOS ANGELES — In the closing minutes at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion, Miami University basketball coach Charlie Coles yelled for Kenny Hayes "to start making some plays."
Hayes heeded his coach, but when it came to the biggest play of all he wanted to do it right. Which means not too fast.
Miami's 6-foot senior point guard completed a dramatic four-point play with 1.7 seconds remaining to boost the RedHawks past the Weber State Wildcats 70-66 Wednesday, Nov. 12 in the first round of the 2K Sports Classic Benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer.
Hayes drilled a 3-pointer, was fouled and sank the free throw to clinch the 300th victory of Coles' collegiate career in Miami's regular-season opener.
Weber State had tied the game with 16.5 seconds left on a basket by Kellen McCoy.
"We didn't have a timeout left," Coles said. "I told (Hayes), hey, just get the last shot. It looked good all the way."
Hayes, who finished with a game-high 24 points and made 7-of-7 shots from the 3-point arc, wanted to make sure it was indeed the last shot.
"(Michael) Bramos kept telling me to go, go, go," Hayes said. "I had a flashback of the Wright State game last year."
Last season a basket by Hayes had given Miami a 58-57 lead with 5 seconds left, but Wright State's Todd Brown hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Raiders a stunning victory.
"I didn't want to give (Weber State) a chance to go down the floor and get off a shot," Hayes said.
So he allowed a little extra time to run off the clock before he took the shot.
Hayes scored 17 of Miami's first points but then went 20 minutes without a point. "They went up on us and I didn't want to force any shots," he explained.
Weber State had rallied from an eight-point deficit in the first half to take a 49-39 lead in the second half.
Tyler Dierkers and Bramos each added 13 points for the RedHawks, who will play their second-round game at 11 p.m. today, Nov. 13 against the winner of Wednesday's late contest between fourth-ranked UCLA and Prairie View A&M.
