The battle between Miami’s regional campuses followed its gritty script as the visiting ThunderHawks pulled away in the second half to register an 81-56 victory over the Harriers.
“I thought they out-scrapped us,” MU Hamilton coach Dwayne Terry said. “I thought they wanted it a little more than we did.”
Both teams took their best basketball into Wednesday’s Ohio Regional Campus Conference showdown. MU Middletown now has won 16 of its last 17. MUH still has won seven out of its last 10.
“We’ve got a lot of guys who can score, and I think that’s helped us the most,” MUM coach Bob Nocton said. “That’s what puts us to where we’re at right now.”
Don Houser and Alex Arthur each scored 17 points for the ThunderHawks, who moved to 18-5, 13-1 ORCC. Will McCray paced the Harriers with 15 points.
Lamar Mallory added 15 points for MUM.
“Tonight a couple guys got to play a little bit more, and some didn’t see as much time out there as they’re used to because they didn’t show that intensity” Nocton said. “We’ve got a lot of players who have similar talent.”
The ThunderHawks led by as many as 13 in the first half, but the Harriers scored six straight to pull to 28-26.
That was as close as MUH (14-9, 7-6) would get.
“This whole week of practice, we didn’t have a lot people there,” Terry said of his injury-plagued Harriers. “I thought we had to be lucky to win this game. We weren’t able to get prepared.”
MUM was able to bounce back. The ThunderHawks were hit with their only conference loss, which came against OSU Lima on Saturday.
“We were really disappointed about that,” Nocton said. “It felt like we had to go out and get this one.”
MUM women lead the way
The MU Middletown women’s basketball team set the tone with a 59-55 comeback victory over MUH on Wednesday.
Rachael Connaughton scored a game-high 28 points for the Harriers (7-8, 4-8), who led the entire second half before the ThunderHawks (9-11, 7-7) marched back to take the lead in the final minute.
Brooke Keene paced MUM with 23 points.
“I think a little fatigue set in on us,” MUH coach Brian Wooten said. “We started playing sloppy, and we stopped the clock too much.
“Middletown’s a good team,” Wooten added. “There are some things you just can’t do against good teams. We turned the ball over too much.”
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