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RedHawks host Kenyon in home-opener

By Ben Molnar, The Miami Student

The Miami University men's basketball team plays its home opener against Kenyon College Tuesday. The RedHawks are 88-22 in home openers and have won 22 of their last 24 home openers.

Kenyon returns three starters - senior guard Tim Connolly, senior center Brien Comey and sophomore guard Alexander Powell - from last year's squad that went 7-18 last season.

Connolly paced the team last season with 14 points per game and 4.7 rebounds per game. Comey led in rebounds, averaging 6.2 per game. He also had a team-best 26 blocked shots last season.

"They're gonna come in and try to win the game, obviously," head coach John Cooper said. "But more importantly, this is a big game for their kids. They have good basketball players. They're a well-coached team. We've certainly learned from the past, hopefully, that you have to be prepared, you have to be focused and locked in on every single game and be ready to play."

Miami leads the all-time series with Kenyon,19-9. The 'Hawks are 12-3 when playing at Millett Hall. Although the two schools have meet 28 times, nearly all came in the early years of the program. The teams have not faced each other since the early 1980s, and the Lords' last win in the series was during the 1924-25 season.

Cooper said the Red and White must remedy issues that emerged during the second half of their season-opening loss at Xavier University on Friday.

"You look at the second half, we don't come out," Cooper said. "We don't have a very good start, which is one of the things we talked about in the locker room."

Cooper also says the team must stop committing unnecessary fouls and reach the free throw line more often.

"One of the things that we were able to do was get to the foul line, I'd like to get there a lot more," Cooper said.

Tipoff is at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Millett Hall.

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