CLEVELAND — No. 20 Miami (Ohio) suffered its first loss Thursday in the first game of the Mid-American Conference Tournament with a shocking 87-83 loss to UMass, spoiling the last perfect record in Division I men’s basketball.
Danielle Hankins-Sanford made a tiebreaking layup with 29 seconds left and the Minutemen prevailed in a quarterfinal game that featured 12 lead changes and 10 ties.
The Redhawks (31-1) were the fifth men’s Division I program undefeated in the regular season this century. Now, it’s the second to get tripped up in its conference tournament. St. Joseph’s lost to Xavier in the 2004 Atlantic 10 quarterfinals but was still the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Miami became the first squad since Gonzaga to go undefeated in a conference tournament in 2020-21.
“Our guys have earned the right to play in the NCAA tournament, in my opinion,” Miami coach Travis Steele told reporters.
The Redhawks had eight one-possession games during the regular season, with their last three coming in the MAC Tournament.
The RedHawks had few doubts about earning an at-large berth. They calmed down after last Friday’s win over Ohio, but they could pick it up again after that.
After a Hankins-Sanford play, Miami’s Luke Skaljac made a bad pass and turned the ball over to Marcus Banks, who made two free throws to make it a two-possession game.
Brant Byers was fouled on a 3-point attempt but made just two of three free throws. Banks iced the game with another pair of free throws with eight seconds left.
Leonardo Bettiol led UMass (17-15) with 25 points while Banks added 18 and Jayden Ndzigu 16.
Byers led Miami with 17 points, and Ian Elmer added 16 points.
Miami led 69-58 with 8:11 left before UMass came back on a 13-2 run. Ndjigue had six points, including a 3-pointer to tie it at 71.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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