The RedHawks — the only 19-0 team in the nation and one of just three unbeaten teams in Division I basketball — were on the verge of losing Saturday afternoon in front of one of the biggest and most energized crowds Millett Hall had seen in a decade and a half.
Miami had come into the game against Buffalo riding a 25-game winning streak at home, the longest in program history.
The visiting Bulls — who were 13-4 and featured two of the best guards in the Mid-American Conference — were more than up to the task and the game soon became a toe-to-toe slugfest, each team taking turns delivering three-point haymakers that should have sent the other reeling.
That didn’t happen.
There were 27 lead changes in the game, but coming down the stretch Miami seemed to lose its mojo. A seven-point lead evaporated and became a five-point deficit.
Coming into the final seconds of regulation, Miami had hit just one field goal in the final 8 minutes, that one a drive by Suder with just over four minutes left.
Up to that point, the sharpshooting, 6-foot-5 senior guard — the leader of the team — was all but unstoppable on offense. He had 16 points at the half and 24 at just over three minutes into the second half.
He scored 42 against Air Force last season and he suddenly was on pace to pass that mark.
And then, he was not.
In those final four minutes, with Buffalo leading, 84-82, Suder — an 87.8 percent free throw shooter, best on the team — missed three of four attempts from the charity stripe and three field goal attempts.
Miami though, as coach Travis Steele said, is a team “built for these moments.”
He said the players get neither too high nor too low no matter what the situation. For the most part they just focus on the next play.
That was the case in dramatic fashion and at the end of regulation, Miami trailed 86-83 and in the final seconds Suder launched what everyone hoped was a game-tying three.
The shot missed, but before the arena-wide deflation could set in, you saw a lone Miami arm reach up among a scrum of Buffalo rebounders beneath the basket.
Brant Byers, Miami’s 6-foot-8 sophomore guard, managed somehow to outreach the better-positioned Bulls players and bat the ball out to teammate Eian Elmer, who was set up at the three-point line on Without pause, Elmer caught Byers’ well-aimed tip, took one step back to make sure he was in trey range and let fire.
“I knew it was going in when it left his hand,” Steele said and then noted how people would focus on that shot but didn’t realize it came after “thousands and thousands” of similar attempts in practice to ready for this moment.
As Steele said more than once Saturday, the RedHawks are a “great team” for which “the moment is never too big.”
Elmer’s shot snapped the net cords and put an exclamation point on that thought.
His three just before the final gun knotted the score, 86-86.
In overtime there were more Miami heroics:
Elmer hit another three before fouling out; point guard Luke Skaljac was unflappable — scoring on a spinning drive and hitting four pressurized free throws — and Suder returned to form.
After scoring early on a drive, Suder then got the ball after a final seconds time out and the score tied again at 102.
“It was either Luke Skaljac getting a good match-up and he goes or I get a good match-up and go,” Suder said.
“I knew I wanted the ball. I’d hit what, four or five threes? I don’t know (six actually). I was feeling good for sure.”
The Bulls 6-3 guard Angelo Brizzi was guarding him, but as the time drained, Suder took a step back to create space and launched a gutsy three.
“Yeah, 100 percent — I knew it was in when I shot it,” Suder said.
As the scoreboard flashed the final — 105 to 102 — Suder, who finished with 37 points, put his two hands together as though he were praying and placed them gently under his tilted head to give Steph Curry’s iconic “Night Night” sign.
The fabled Golden State guard made that his signature move in an early round of the NBA playoffs a few seasons ago after driving past Denver’s Nikola Jokić, the league’s three-time MVP.
Curry said the idea was to put Denver to sleep, which is what Golden State did on the way to an NBA crown. The pantomime became his trademark.
“One of my favorite players is Steph Curry,” Suder said. “I got the ‘Night Night’ from him.
“I’d never hit a Night Night like that before … Never.”
‘The ultimate winner’
That Suder not only hit the game-winner Saturday in what was a career performance, but has been the rudder on a RedHawks’ unbeaten run like no other in program history is karma.
With the loyalty he’s shown in his embrace of his teammates, his coach and the school, it’s only fitting.
After the RedHawks’ 25-9 effort last season — which included a two-point loss in the MAC title game keeping them out of the NCAA Tournament and then a snub by the NIT selection committee — two fellow starters and a promising 7-foot-1 sophomore left the team via the transfer portal for higher profile programs or more NIL money.
Many people assumed Suder, who won All-MAC first team honors last season, would join their flight.
He had started his career at Bellarmine and after last season he had enticing offers to continue his climb up the Division I ladder.
Instead, he announced he was coming back and that helped entice other returnees like Elmer, Antwone Woolfolk and Brant Byers to do the same.
“There was no doubt in my mind,” Suder said Saturday about his decision. “I never wanted to leave Miami. Why would I leave? We had a great year last year.
“We came up a little short and that’s just more motivation for this year.”
He didn’t do it for individual gain as much as for being part of special team, Steele said:
“Pete is tremendous. He gives it his all every time out. He’s diving on the floor. He’s everywhere. He only knows one way to play. He does whatever the team needs
“This is very difficult for young people regardless of the sport to do. Scoring is glorified; we all know that.
“I’ve got a little guy who plays seventh grade basketball. Everybody wants to see their child score.
“But there are games where Pete Suder has had six points and you can’t tell the difference from when he has 37 like he did today. He’s the same.
“He’s incredible. He is the ultimate winner.”
Rank the RedHawks
Both Suder and Steele think the RedHawks should be ranked in the AP Top 25 poll.
I do as well.
The other two unbeaten teams are Arizona, No. 1 in the nation last week and Nebraska, which was No. 8. They both are 18-0 after wins this weekend.
Miami was 29th in the last poll.
“I’d love it for our guys and our university – I think we deserve it,” Steele said of Top 25 recognition. “(Some) people will say, ‘Who did they play?’
“But you still have got to win. We’re 19-0. We’ve won on the road, neutral and at home. We’ve got a really good team. Don’t penalize us for people not willing to play us.
“Regardless, we’ve got a great group and we’re going to focus on what we can control. We’re going to focus on getting better and hopefully peaking at the right time in March.”
Although the RedHawks uncharacteristically stumbled at the free throw line (16 of 26) and were lax on defense at times Saturday, they still were impressive.
Against Buffalo they had several standout performances:
Skaljac had 18 points and 10 assists; Elmer had 17 points; Woolfork had 12 points, 11 rebounds and five steals and Byers added14 points.
Saturday the Millett crowd was 5,088 and that’s without the students back on campus from Christmas break.
Attendance has been a struggle in recent years, but that is changing.
“That’s the last piece of our puzzle to be a great program in the country,” Suder said.
As Steele keeps stressing: “This is a fun team to watch.”
And nothing was more fun than seeing Suder hit the three and be mobbed by his teammates as he tried running down the court.
“Having all the guys chasing me around and just being in that type of moment, I’ll remember that forever,” Suder said.
He should.
It will forever be the time he woke up just in time so he could say “Night Night.”
Next game
Who: Miami at Kent State
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday
Streaming: ESPN+
About the Author