“Unflappable.”
Calm, cool and confident once again, No. 23 Miami used a blistering first half and a poised response to a second-half surge to beat Marshall 90-74 on Saturday in the MAC–Sun Belt Challenge, pushing the RedHawks to 24-0.
Eian Elmer scored 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds, Peter Suder added 17 and Antwone Woolfolk finished with 15 as Miami had five players in double figures.
Luke Skaljac had 12 points and seven assists, Almar Atlason chipped in 10 and the RedHawks shot 33 of 59 (55.9 percent) from the field for the 18th time this season at 50 percent or better.
Noah Otshudi led Marshall (15-9) with 23 points.
“First off, I have a ton of respect for Coach Corn and the Marshall men’s basketball program,” Steele said. “They’re at the very top of the Sun Belt. We got matched up in the Sun Belt-MAC Challenge for a reason. We knew it was going to be a heck of a battle.”
Miami made sure it wasn’t for long.
Elmer buried three early 3-pointers as the RedHawks jumped to a 16-7 lead, then ripped off a 15-1 run highlighted by a Woolfolk put-back, another Elmer triple and a Justin Kirby layup for a 35-16 cushion. Atlason converted a four-point play and Skaljac added a conventional three-point play to make it 41-17 before Miami carried a 49-31 advantage into the break.
“We got off to a great start. Our ball was really moving,” Steele said. “Eian was tremendous early. I thought our defensive game plan was really, really good. We tried to give Marshall a different picture in ball-screen coverage to keep them off rhythm.”
Marshall answered, cutting the deficit to 59-49 with 12:21 left and eventually to 65-56 — the first time the margin dipped below double figures since the opening half.
Steele called timeout.
“That’s been our group all year — we’re totally unflappable,” he said. “Calm, cool, collected, confident. We just started executing a little bit better on offense and defense and were able to stretch it out again.”
Free throws from Atlason, Elmer and Suder, along with a Skaljac steal that led to a Kirby layup, rebuilt the lead to 73-58. Miami finished with 46 points in the paint and held the Thundering Herd to 8 of 29 from 3-point range.
“We score a lot of different ways and have a clear identity on the offensive end, but you’ve got to have an identity on defense too,” Steele said. “I think our defensive identity is definitely coming to life the last couple games.”
Skaljac continued his ascent as Miami’s floor general with a game-high seven assists.
“I’m super proud of Luke,” Steele said. “He plays at his own pace, doesn’t get sped up, can score at the rim, the mid-range, 3s. He makes everybody around him better. He’s as good an offensive guard as there is in our league.”
The RedHawks turned it over 13 times — uncharacteristic for the nation’s last undefeated team — yet still reached 90 points.
“We scored 90 tonight, and honestly I didn’t think we played great,” Steele said. “But what makes us really dangerous compared to last year is we’re not just tied to 3s. We get to the free-throw line, we can score interior via drives, cuts and post-ups.”
Miami improved to 11-0 away from home this season.
“It’s great. We play better on the road than we do at home,” Steele said. “That crowd was amazing. Shout out to the Marshall students — you guys did a great job heckling us. It was a great college basketball environment.”
Steele, whose team continues to climb the national spotlight, reminded his players not to look ahead.
“I showed our guys a graphic of a guy driving with a phone in his hand,” he said. “You’re distracted — that’s when you hit obstacles. Our guys know we’ve got to keep the main thing the main thing.”
Elmer went 4 for 4 from 3-point range and added three steals. Miami shot 55.9 percent overall and limited Marshall to 27.6 percent from deep.
Next game
Who: Ohio at Miami
When: 9 p.m. Friday
Streaming: ESPN
Radio: 980-AM, 1450-AM, 101.5-FM
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