Brant Byers scored 21 points and Peter Suder added 20 as No. 23 Miami (Ohio) remained the nation’s only unbeaten team with a 90-74 win over archrival Ohio on Friday in Oxford, Ohio.
Byers shot 13-for-16 from the free throw line while Eian Elmer added 15 points for Miami (25-0, 12-0 Mid-American), which took the lead for good in the game’s first five minutes and never trailed the rest of the way.
The 25-game win streak is the longest in the country to start a season since Gonzaga went 31-0 before losing the national championship game in the 2020-21 season.
Miami, which shot 51.7% from the field, also ran its home win streak to a school-record 29 games before a record crowd of 10,640 inside Millett Hall.
The RedHawks already had set Mid-American Conference records for the best start and the longest winning streak, breaking the 21-game streak recorded by Kent State in the 2001-02 season.
Jackson Paveletzke had 22 points and Javan Simmons scored 12 for the Bobcats (13-13, 7-6), who had three early leads in the opening minutes. Luke Skaljac’s layup broke a 10-10 tie and gave the RedHawks the lead for good with 15:37 left in the first half.
Miami used a 10-2 run over a three-minute stretch late in the first half to take a 41-30 edge on Almar Atlason’s 3-pointer with 1:58 left before halftime. The RedHawks matched their biggest lead of the half moments later, 43-32, before Ajay Sheldon’s trey cut the gap to 43-35 heading into halftime.
Coming out of the break, Miami picked up the tempo and built the lead to 13 multiple times. Byers hit five straight free throws, including all three after being fouled while shooting from well beyond the 3-point arc.
Miami used a 9-2 spurt over a three-minute span midway through the second half to turn a 10-point game into a comfortable 65-48 advantage. Ohio got within 65-52 on a tip-in from Kiir Kuany, but the RedHawks answered with a 14-7 spurt to go up by 20, and they coasted from there.
