Recap: Miami (OH) Defeats App. State 77-63
By: Jack Mueller
The Miami RedHawks opened the 2024-2025 basketball season with a dominant performance, defeating the Appalachian State Mountaineers on their home floor 77-63.
"This is a great statement win" said Head Coach Travis Steele "It's our first impression, it's our only chance to have one."
Steele made waves this offseason bringing in seven new faces to his program. Five of them were on display on Monday night, and the three transfers that saw the floor made an instant impact. Bellarmine transfer, and "swiss army knife" according to his coach, Peter Suder led his new team in scoring, putting up 17 on a variety of drives to the rim, as well as connecting from beyond the arc twice.
Down the final stretch of the game, it was another new player than made a critical impact for the RedHawks. Guard Kam Craft joined Miami after starting his career at Xavier and is expected to play a major role on offense for Steele’s team this season. He showed why there are such high expectations around him in the second half, scoring eight straight points for his side to keep Miami in the lead by double digits. Craft ended the game with 16.
"Kam can be as good of a scorer as there is in this league." said Steele "We gotta keep getting him more shots."
One of the big question marks coming into the season was how this team would replace Anderson Mirambeaux’s interior presence in his absence this season. Antwoine Woolfolk, formerly of Rutgers, quelled those questions in his first game as a RedHawk. The 6’9” big man added ten more points, as well as pulling down five rebounds and blocking a shot.
"I've seen him play better" said Steele "he's so skilled with the ball...we play through him a lot."
The final two newcomers to get minutes on Monday were the two freshmen who joined the rotation in the early part of this season. Luka Skaljac and Brant Byers combined for 33 minutes of game action in their first collegiate game. The former of the two made an instant impact. Skaljac put up six points on 50% shooting, adding two steals and two blocks in his time on the floor.
Despite the new faces, Miami dominated nearly every aspect of the game, which led to their double-digit win. The RedHawks outshot the Mountaineers from the floor (46%-40%), from three (44%-29%) and from the charity stripe (92%-58%). Miami also forced App. State into 19 turnovers, and converted an extra ten points as a result.
"Everybody impacted the game." said Steele "We got a lot of different guys that can do it."
Some of the returning players for Coach Steele excelled in the season opener as well. Last year’s freshman “fab five” are poised to take a leap to the next level, and showed signs of it on Monday. Mekhi Cooper continued to be a defensive wizard, coming away with four steals. Evan Ipsaro and Eian Elmer combined for 20 points on 45% from the field. Jackson Kotecki’s minutes were limited in comparison to the other three, but still made an impact with two points and three rebounds.
Just 36 seconds into the season, Kam Craft connected on a triple. RedHawks fans will hope that his four triples are a sign of things to come in subsequent weeks. Despite the early success, Miami fell into an early seven-point deficit after seven minutes after Myles Tate scored seven (wow that was a lot of sevens), and Luke Wilson reached the rim for an earth-shattering dunk. There were some early growing pains for this new RedHawk team, as they registered seven fouls and six turnovers in the first ten minutes of action.
Miami fought back into the game, tying it at 22 just five minutes later after Elmer put a three-pointer through from the corner. App State’s Dior Connors answered with a triple of his own, before Cooper tied the contest again with yet another shot from behind the arc.
An Ipsaro layup and Craft jumpshot gave the RedHawks their first lead since the first minute of the game, going up 29-26 with just under four minutes to go. The Mountaineers would retake the lead after a three by C.J. Huntley, but was quickly answered when Craft connected with a triple with 26 seconds left in the half.
Miami came out firing in the second half, taking their first two-possession lead of the night after just four minutes. Back-to-back threes from Cooper and Suder, followed by a layup down low gave the RedHawks a six-point lead. They kept the momentum rolling after a Skaljac three, but Anthony Alston ended the run with a three for the Mountaineers.
Michael Marcus connected from behind the arc to bring the Mountaineers within two, but Ipsaro and Skaljac combined for five more points to re-establish the lead. Both teams traded buckets throughout the middle of the second half, but the RedHawks did enough to maintain their seven point advantage. Another triple by Suder gave Steele’s team their first double digit lead of the game with seven minutes to go.
Three pointers continued to be a focal point of the RedHawk offense, as two more triples from Kam Craft stretched Miami’s lead to as large as 12 with just over five minutes left in the game. Three pointers for App State’s Jackson Threadgill and Myles Tate brought the Mountaineers within seven, but that’s as close as they would get. The RedHawk defense would hold strong down the stretch, and they forced their opponents to foul. As the clock wound down to three zeroes, the RedHawks left the floor with a fourteen point lead.
Miami wins their season opener for the first time since 2021, their first in the Travis Steele era. The RedHawks will hope to keep their momentum rolling against Wright State for their home opener on Saturday at Millett Hall at 1 p.m.