Canes Hoops Recap: Resurgence leads to 80-74 victory over rival FSU

“You can see the electricity he brings to the game,” said Jim Larranaga about Chris Lykes after Miami’s 80-74 win over the Florida State Seminoles.

And after taking heavy criticism following a bad loss to Georgia Tech the other night, Chris Lykes had his best game as a Miami Hurricane, scoring 18 points off the bench, his high as a Cane.

Dewan Huell and Bruce Brown added 20 and 23 points respectively.

But the story of the game was Lykes, who had a career game. FSU’s size may have been a concern, especially against a 5’8’’ Lykes, but the young man who Larranaga compared to Michael Jordan played his best game in the biggest game so far, shooting 50 percent from the field and from three.

Bruce Brown, who led the team in scoring tonight, was not surprised with Lykes performance.

“He does it in practice so I knew it was a matter of time before he did it in a game,” Brown told reporters after the game.

Early on the game was back and forth until midway though the 1st half when the Canes went on their initial run. The run extended through halftime, where UM took a 13 point led into the locker room.

With 16 minutes to go the Canes led by 16, which was their largest lead of the evening. But the Noles rallied to cut the lead to as little as four with 28 seconds to go. Things got especially dicy when FSU’s Braian Angola stole an inbounds pass and attempted a three pointer to cut it to one, but thankfully Angola missed the shot wide right, setting up an Anthony Lawrence rebound and opportunity to take a foul, which allowed him to put the game essentially out of reach at the free throw line.

I said it after the GT game and I'll continue to emphasize this, but this is one of the biggest three game stretches in program history. The Hurricanes got the start they needed for this run with the win tonight, but it continues on Saturday at Clemson, where afterward the team will turn their attention to the Duke Blue Devils.

In this ACC, you have to be able to win each and every night, so we’ll see how well this team is able to bring the right amount of energy each time they step on the court.