The Associated Press

Marshall and Miami were teams going in opposite directions.

Monday, January 08, 2001

Marshall and Miami were teams going in opposite directions. Then somebody threw them both into reverse.

The Thundering Herd hit just 5-of-22 shots from the field in the first half and never escaped from a 19-point hole as the RedHawks turned things around for both teams with a 71-54 Mid-American Conference win on Saturday.

”In the first half, we could not knock a shot down,” Marshall coach Greg White said. ”It’s hard to come back from 20 down in this league.”

Marshall (8-2, 2-1) had won its last seven games; Miami had lost four in a row, including the last two in Millett Hall.

Alex Shorts scored 17 points to lead the RedHawks (5-8, 1-1). Three others hit double figures.

”We don’t have a guy like (Wally) Szczerbiak here, so we’re going to have to rely on contributions from everybody,” said Jason Grunkemeyer, who had 16 points for the RedHawks.

Miami led 18-14 at 8:21 in a sluggish first half but took control with a 9-0 run that started with a pair of layups and a free throw by Julius Johnson. That gave the RedHawks a 13-point lead, and Miami led 35-16 at halftime as Marshall turned the ball over 12 times and missed shots the rest of the time.

”In my mind, our team hasn’t had any fight,” Miami coach Charlie Coles said.

But that changed abruptly.

”You’ve got to give them a lot of credit,” White said. ”They needed a win and they got it.”

Tamar Slay had 15 points to lead the Herd, who got a scare when point guard Cornelius Jackson went down with a left knee injury. He later returned.

Elsewhere around the MAC, Jon Borovich scored the first five points and David Webber had the last four in a late 9-0 run as Central Michigan beat Bowling Green 92-85 to end the Falcons’ 20-game home winning streak.

Webber finished with 21 points and nine rebounds for the Chippewas (7-3, 1-0), who hadn’t played in 17 days. Chad Pleiness had 16 points, seven assists and eight rebounds and Chris Kaman had 14 points.

”It was a great team effort,” CMU coach Jay Smith said. ”To have that big a layoff and come back the way we did, we didn’t miss a beat.”

Borovich had a perfect day on 4-of-4 shooting from the field including a pair of 3-pointers and 2-for-2 at the line to finish with 12 points.

Central shot 56 percent from the field (29-of-52), 6-of-13 3-pointers (46 percent) and made 80 percent of its free throws (28-of-35).

Keith McLeod scored 25 points, Brandon Pardon had 17 points and eight assists, Trent Jackson scored 11 points and Brent Klassen 10 for Bowling Green (5-6, 1-1). The Falcons’ winning streak was the fifth longest in the nation.

Greg Stempin had 20 points and 15 rebounds to lead Toledo past Western Michigan 89-72.

Terry Reynolds scored 18 points, Nick Moore 14 and Rory Jones had 14 off the bench for the Rockets (10-3, 2-0), who outrebounded the Broncos 42-25.

Reggie Berry scored 15 points for Western (1-11, 1-2).

Kyrem Massey scored 18 points as Kent State came back from a halftime deficit to beat Akron 73-61.

The Golden Flashes (9-4, 2-0) scored the first eight points but still trailed 41-33 at the half as Akron (4-7, 1-1) shot 61 percent from the field. But the Zips mustered just 30 percent (6-of-20) in the second half.

Trevor Huffman, who had 16 points, made two free throws with 8:46 left to put the Golden Flashes ahead 57-56. The Zips were without a basket the rest of the way, with their remaining five points coming on Rashon Brown foul shots.

David Falknor paced Akron with 15 points off the bench.

Lonnie Jones and Cedric Moodie each hit free throws in the final minute as Ball State held off Eastern Michigan, 69-66.

Theron Smith had 23 points and 12 rebounds as Ball State (6-5, 1-1) build an 11-point lead with 15 minutes left and then used its defense down the stretch against the Eagles (2-9, 0-2).

Ricky Cottrill was 6-of-9 from 3-point range and led Eastern with 23 points.

Mike Brown had 21 points and seven rebounds as Northern Illinois beat Buffalo 64-49.

Brown hit 8-of-11 field goal attempts, including 5-of-6 3-pointers, as the Huskies (2-9, 1-1) shot 51 percent from the field.

Jason Robinson and Damien Foster scored 13 points apiece for the Bulls (2-8, 0-3).