‘Canes Hoops Dominated for Second Consecutive Game in Loss to UConn

After one of the worst nights in program history for the football team occurred Saturday, the basketball had a similarly woeful day Sunday. The Hurricanes (4-3, 0-1 ACC) suffered their second consecutive blowout loss, this time at the hands of the UConn Huskies, losing 80-55 in a game that was never really competitive.

UConn (4-2) dominated the ‘Canes on the inside, exposing Miami’s interior defense much like Louisville, Florida, and Missouri State had earlier this season. The Huskies led the rebounding battle by eight boards and had 18 second chance points to Miami’s eight.

Issues that have plagued Miami consistently for the last year and a half flared up again. There were extended stretches where the Hurricanes’ offense was completely shut down and simply couldn’t score. Despite the game being over, Miami didn’t score a point for the last three minutes of the game.

The ‘Canes turned the ball over 12 times and forced UConn into just six errors of their own. Add the turnover differential to the rebounding disparity and it’s easy to see that the Huskies earned themselves extra possessions and took advantage of them.

Free throw issues also flared up again. The Hurricanes had difficulty getting to the line, had only two free throw attempts in the entire game, and made just one. The Huskies, by contrast, took 12 shots from the line and converted nine of them.

There was not a single player on UConn’s team that had a negative +/- for the afternoon. By contrast, every single Miami player was in the negative, and the only player close to 0 was Chris Lykes. However, Lykes had just seven points and one assist on the afternoon in just 21 minutes. If he can’t become Miami’s team leader as was expected before the season it’ll be a challenge for the Hurricanes’ offense to significantly improve.

The Huskies were led in scoring by junior forward Josh Carlton, who had 16 points on the afternoon. He dominated Miami’s frontcourt for the entire game and added five boards to go along with his scoring. His frontcourt teammate, Akok Akok, had six blocks, forcing Miami’s interior offense to struggle as much as its’ defense did.

The Hurricanes were dominated in almost every area of the game. They allowed the Huskies to shoot over 50%, lost the rebounding battle, lost the battle for points in transition, lost the battle for blocks, lost the battle for steals, lost the battle for turnovers, lost the battle for points in transition, and lost the game. Miami has to reset and go back to the drawing board after a 1-2 performance in the Charleston Classic. The Hurricanes will next take the court December 2nd against Illinois in the Big 10-ACC Challenge.