Thomas Bieszk
Staff Writer
Karrington Ward ignored any remaining pain in his injured ankle to lead the Eastern Michigan men’s basketball team to an 83-69 home victory over Miami of Ohio.
Ward recorded his ninth career double-double, including 5-for-6 shooting from the three-point line to lead the Eagles to the win against a Redhawk team that stunned EMU Jan. 10 with a 25-point comeback win.
“My ankle felt pretty good today,” Ward said. “It’s not at 100 percent but I feel it’s pretty close to 100 percent, and it showed today.”
Ward hit four of his five three-pointers within the first ten minutes of the contest but was held scoreless for a good portion of the game afterwards, allowing Mike Talley to take over scoring. Talley, along with Ward, scored 12 points in the first half to give the Eagles a 33-26 advantage at halftime.
Talley finished second on the team behind Ward with 20 points, and Raven Lee followed up on his 33-point performance Saturday with 18 points.
“Tonight was a really good win for us,” EMU coach Rob Murphy said. “It was good to see Karrington Ward be Karrington Ward tonight as well. It’s always tough to stop us when you have him, Ray Lee and Mike Talley all on the same court, and they all had huge offensive games for us tonight.”
The Eagles led Miami for 38 and a half minutes and, unlike the previous matchup with the Redhawks, were able to keep a distance and prevent another comeback as had happened back in January.
“That one we let slip away,” Murphy said. “We had a 25-point lead and were unable to finish it. We came back and just wanted to protect out home floor this time, and we were able to do that.”
Eric Washington finished with 20 points for the Redhawks while Geovonie McKnight scored 14 points.
The Eagles improve to 15-9 on the season with a 4-7 MAC record while the Redhawks fall to 8-16 with a 3-8 MAC record.
Play resumes Saturday as the Eagles host the University of Akron. Tipoff is set for 2:30 p.m.
