DaytonDailyNews.com

OXFORD — Carl Richburg has been a back-up point guard for most of his career at Miami University, but he wasn't a back-up Sunday, March 1, and his numbers took a back set to nobody.

Richburg, who became Miami's new starting point guard after senior Eric Pollitz suffered a college-career ending knee injury at Ohio, recorded a career-high nine assists and had only two turnovers in Miami's 68-63 victory over Kent State.

The 5-foot-9 senior from Mason also established a career high with 38 minutes played.

The fact that Richburg scored only four points and went 0-for-5 from the 3-point arc seemed hardly to matter.

"Carl did a good job," Miami coach Charlie Coles said. "Carl helped us shoot better threes, because Carl penetrates pretty good.

"That's a world record for Carl," he said of Richburg's assist-to-turnover numbers. "He needs to frame that."

Still in the hunt

Miami's victory keeps the RedHawks in contention for the Mid-American Conference East Division title and a first-round bye for the MAC Tournament.

The RedHawks are tied with the Akron Zips for third in the MAC East, one game behind co-leaders Buffalo and Bowling Green.

Miami plays both co-leaders in its final two regular season games, Thursday, March 5 in its home finale against Bowling Green and Sunday, March 8 at Buffalo.

A rare sweep over KSU

This is Miami's first regular-season sweep over Kent State since the 2003-04 season, when the RedHawks beat the Flashes 74-65 in Oxford and 59-57 at Kent, but then lost to the Flashes 66-56 in the MAC Tournament semifinals.

Flashes lose 3 to fouls

Three different Kent State players fouled out over the last 30 seconds and two of those players, Al Fisher and Chris Singletary, missed significant playing time in the first half due to foul trouble.

"Let's face it, let's be real," Coles said, "I'd hate to think what would happen if Fisher and Singletary didn't get into foul trouble."

Coles closing in

Coles needs two MAC wins to tie Toledo's Bob Nichols, who holes the record for most career MAC wins with 194. Coles' record in MAC games is 192-132.

Long shot for Dierkers

Miami senior Tyler Dierkers the fourth double-double of the season and sixth of his career with 10 points and a game-high 10 rebounds, and his last three points came on a 3-pointer. It gave Miami a 64-57 lead with 1:45 to play.

"I was confident," Dierkers said. "Carl (Richburg) had penetrated and he got me a wide-open look."

Coles was not so confident.

The Miami coach said he can't repeat the words he uttered when he saw Dierkers take the shot. On the other hand, he certainly isn't going to give the three points back.

"I'm going to act like I didn't see the three," Coles said with a grin. "I don't want that three to become routine."

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