Miami University's women's basketball team was dominant Wednesday night at Millett Hall, leading from start to finish in a 66-58 victory against Ohio University.

"I'm pleased with the win, and I think we are improving very rapidly on defense to give us a chance to win," Miami Head Coach Maria Fantanarosa said, "but our offense was a huge part of tonight, mainly our post play."

The win improves the Red and White to 4-12 on the season and 2-1 in the MAC. Ohio drops to 4-12 on the year and 0-3 in the conference.

Senior forward Ashleigh Brown led the RedHawks in scoring with a season-best 17 points. She also grabbed six rebounds and had three steals.

"It's really important for this team to have a balanced effort on offense," Brown said. "If we have a balanced threat, it makes us very hard to guard. We were also getting stops on defense, so were able to go in transition and use everyone one through five."

Miami quickly jumped out to a big advantage in the first half, an effort led primarily by a very strong defensive showing.

"We played a matchup zone and we mixed up when we would go to man-to-man defense," Fantanarosa said. "We were very conscious of their outside shooters."

In the first half, Ohio was held scoreless for more than 10 minutes, and the 'Hawks used an 18-0 run to extend to a 27-8 advantage with just more than three minutes to play before the break.

A late 7-0 run by the Bobcats just before halftime gave them some hope heading into the locker room.

"Our transition defense at that time was not very good, we were getting back but we weren't competitive enough to stop them," Fantanarosa said. "You have to give them a compliment for coming back; they're a very athletic team. But we've been good coming out of halftime, so I knew our leadership would make sure it didn't happen again."

Miami led 31-19 at the break, with a big difference in the score being free throw shooting. The RedHawks were eight of eight from the line, while Ohio was just five of 13.

"We can't control a lot of things, but we can control our free throw shooting," Fantanarosa said. "When we get in those situations, we have to just continue to knock them down."

The second half primarily consisted of Miami and Ohio exchanging baskets as the Bobcats did their best to claw their way back into the game. Ohio was never able to get any closer than within seven points of the 'Hawks.

"We did a really good job of handling their press in the second half," freshman guard Courtney Osborn said. "They're very athletic and they were up in our faces the whole time, but we did a good job of staying calm."

Despite constant double teams from the Bobcats, Miami received 16 points from Osborn. Freshman forward Kirsten Olowinski also contributed 13 points off the bench.

"All night we had people step up," Osborn said. "When we can get balanced scoring and a balanced attack like we had, not a lot of people can stop us."

Ohio was led in scoring by senior guard Jenny Poff with 14 points. However, the three-point shot, something the Bobcats normally excel at, was taken away by the Miami defense. Ohio went just four of 18 from beyond the arc.

"We really focused on their two shooters, (Jenny) Poff and (senior guard Jennifer) Bushby," Fantanarosa said. "We also wanted to make sure that they didn't hurt us with their penetration, and we did a good job."

After struggling with the non-conference portion of the schedule, Fantanarosa expressed her excitement about the way this team has competed in the MAC thus far.

"I think right now, Bowling Green and Toledo are the top teams in the MAC," Fantanarosa said. "But the nice thing about us is that we are still very young. While we will continue to improve and look like a different team come tournament time, those other teams might not have much room to improve. That's where we have an advantage."

Miami will conclude its current three-game home stand with a game against Akron University Saturday afternoon at Millett Hall.