After Wright State’s 77-62 victory over Youngstown State on Sunday, the Raiders guard was referring to the team’s athletic trainer, Emily Albanese, who oversaw her rehabilitation from a serious knee injury last season that resulted in surgery on both knees.
“I tore my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) and the LCL (lateral collateral ligament) in my right knee and they took the patellar tendon from my left knee and used it to fix the right,” she said. “For two weeks I couldn’t walk at all.”
She reached down with her left hand and was running the perfectly French manicured nail of her index finger over the three-inch scar on her right knee when she thought of something.
She grabbed her phone for a quick attempt to verify the timing, then offered:
“It was exactly one year ago today that I tore my ACL against IUPUI.”
In truth, she was slightly off the mark.
It was her only long-range miss of the day.
This was Jan. 12 and last year’s game at IUPUI was on Jan. 11. Otherwise, Sunday, she was perfect from afar.
In the first 4 minutes and 12 seconds of the game, she made both of her three-point shots — her only trey attempts on the day — and would finish with 10 points.
She played with no brace on her leg and said she’s never worn one.
“I came back from that injury in just six months,” she said proudly. “That’s why Emily calls me her Miracle Child.”
She said Albanese and the people who assist her deserve a lot of credit for her speedy return and she saluted her teammates and family, too.
“I have good trainers and a lot of good people around me who love me,” she said.
Sunday, her mom, Misako — who is from Kanagawa, Japan, and met her dad, Maurice, when he was in the U.S. Navy — was at the Raiders’ game and said although she’d been worried about her daughter, she wasn’t surprised by her quick comeback because of her dedication.
That commitment reflects in Miller’s basketball: She was the senior captain and point guard of the Reynoldsburg High School team that won the Division I state crown in 2022 and she’s now the starting guard and captain of the Raiders’ team.
The dedication also is seen in her studies. She graduated from Reynoldsburg with 4.3 grade point average and was the valedictorian of her class. She came to Wright State to study biochemistry, and last season was on the Horizon League’s Academic Honor Roll.
That same focused effort showed in her recovery after injuring her knee in the second quarter against the Jaguars.
“It was an inbounds play, and they threw me a bounce pass,” she said. " I was being guarded and as I reached for the ball I was bumped, and all my weight went on my knee, and I fell.
“I heard my knee pop.”
Her sophomore season was over after 18 games.
“I stayed here over the summer and was in the training room every morning with Emily,” she said. “I was determined to be back in six months and that’s how it worked out.”
She turned and tapped her knuckles on the wooden tabletop, an apotropaic move to assure good luck.
She has started every game in this often-difficult season for the Raiders — they’re just 4-14, but now have won two in a row — and is averaging 7.3 points per game.
Staton stars
The star of Sunday’s game was Amaya Staton, the 6-foot-1 graduate transfer, who grabbed 16 rebounds, had 14 points and tied a WSU record with seven blocked shots.
A product of Amherst Steele High School in Lorain, Staton transferred to WSU after starting her college career at Cleveland State and then playing the past three seasons at Merrimack College.
Degree in hand, she entered the transfer portal in search of a school closer to home so her family, especially her parents — Dad, T.J., was a professional baseball player for 11 seasons, mostly in the Pittsburgh Pirates and Montreal Expos organizations; mom Saunjula was an administrator at Cleveland State and Oberlin College — could regularly come and see her play.
She and Claire Henson, who had 10 points Sunday, lead the team in scoring, both averaging 10.3 p.p,g. Staton’s also the Raiders’ top rebounder (7.9 per game.)
Miller has had the opposite career path of Staton, Henson, Abbie Riddle, who had 11 against the Penguins, and four other Raiders, all of whom started at other colleges and came to Fairborn via the transfer portal.
Miller came to WSU straight out of high school and has been here through three personally tough seasons.
The 5-foot-7 guard signed with the program just before her senior high school season, as Kari Hoffman was taking over as the Raiders coach and inheriting a roster decimated by defections and graduation. Although WSU went 4-19, Miller didn’t waiver in her commitment.
“I believed I could come in and help turn things around,” she said.
Her first year, the Raiders went 8-24. She played in all 32 games, started 10, averaged 5.9 points, and was named to the Horizon League All-Freshman Team.
Last season she tore her ACL.
‘A student first’
In this year’s season opener, she led the team with 22 points in a loss at Wisconsin and had 11 in the next game at Evansville.
After that she had some struggles with her shot and has reached double figures just three more times.
Beginning with a loss to Division II Findlay, the Raiders dropped 10 games in a row before upsetting Detroit Mercy at the Nutter Center last Wednesday and now topping 7-10 Youngstown State.
“She (Makiya) wasn’t the only one struggling in that stretch,” Hoffman said. “No one was really playing well.”
Hoffman believes the team — with all its newcomers — is finally getting comfortable with each other and hopes the two straight wins signal a turnaround.
And Miller ― who she said has shown maturity and confidence this season — is one player who could help lead that.
“Ki has been playing for us now for three years,” Hoffman said. “We don’t get many of those anymore — as far as returnees because of the portal — so any time a player stays around for more than a year, there is something to be said for that.
“She’s stuck it out even though there have been some very hard years. You’ve got to commend her for that.”
Miller said she likes it a Wright State for several reasons:
“Here, I’m a student first. They care about you for more than just what you do on the basketball court. So, you want to do your best.”
That’s why she said she was able to return from a devastating injury in six months.
That’s why she is the Miracle Child.
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