GAME NOTES: Hitting the road for the first time this season, the Miami-Ohio RedHawks are set to tangle with the Northwestern Wildcats in the semifinals of the seventh annual Cancun Challenge.

Miami got lucky with a few sub par opponents on the schedule during the first few days of the 2014-15 campaign, allowing it to defeat both Southern Utah and Liberty, the latter being a 63-52 triumph over the weekend. However, in between the RedHawks were beaten down by Evansville by a score of 69-50.

As for the Wildcats, they are still enjoying an unblemished record after four decisions. The team has won three of those contests at home, the most recent of those being a 68-67 overtime affair against Elon on Saturday. Two days prior Northwestern slipped by North Florida in a 69-67 final as part of the earlier rounds of this tournament as well.

Miami won the only previous meeting between the programs by a score of 89-88 as part of the Sun Carnival in El Paso, Texas back in 1974.

Both teams will be back in action on Wednesday with the winner taking on the survivor of the Virginia Tech/Northern Iowa meeting in the title games.

For the second straight game, Tre Demps played the hero for Northwestern as he delivered the game-winning shot, dispatching both North Florida and Elon in a matter of days. Demps was responsible for 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the floor, while Vic Law posted 16 points and Alex Olah responded with 12 rebounds and three blocked shots as the Wildcats converted a mere 3-of-14 behind the 3-point line but outscored the Phoenix by a 27-7 margin at the free-throw line.

The Wildcats have had a different leading scorer in every game thus far, but overall the top performer is Demps with his 12.0 ppg, although he could stand to make some better shot decisions given that he is converting only 37.5 percent from the field and just 22.2 percent on the perimeter. Sanjay Lumpkin checks in with 10.8 ppg and 6.8 rpg to help give Northwestern a 3.8 rpg advantage over the competition.

Against Liberty in the last outing, the RedHawks limited the visitors to 38.6 percent shooting from the floor, including 3-of-16 behind the 3-point line, not to mention forcing the Flames into 16 turnovers. The visitors also hurt their chances of an upset by scoring in the wrong basket in one instance. Geovonie McKnight led the charge for the hosts with a game-high 19 points, followed by Will Sullivan with 12 points.

Sullivan and McKnight also find themselves as the only double-digit scorers on the season overall for the program with 14.0 and 13.3 ppg, respectively. Sullivan has been on fire from 3-point range with a staggering 64.7 percent accuracy, but while he has knocked down 11 triples, the rest of the team has contributed a mere four 3-pointers to the cause.

The RedHawks have yet to be truly tested, although when they did go up against tougher competition they crumbled. Chances are that will be the case again in this meeting since the Wildcats have several offensive weapons to choose from.