UNC fell behind early and never led Tuesday night at Miami, falling to the upset-minded Hurricanes 75-66.
Miami used red-hot early shooting to build a lead as large as 10 points at 22-12 inside of eight minutes played. After missing their first two shots of the game, the Hurricanes promptly made 11 of their next 12, with several coming close to the basket. UNC eventually got itself back into the game thanks to a stretch of seven consecutive makes, with a three-pointer from Jarin Stevenson cutting the deficit to 31-30 at the 6:55 mark of the first half.
At halftime, Miami was shooting 18-31 (58.1 percent) from the floor, while UNC wasn’t far behind at 16-29 (55.2 percent). The Hurricanes lead 43-40.
But the offense dried up for both sides in the second half, with neither team making more than three shots in a row for the entire 20 minutes. The Tar Heels kept the game close and tied the score at 51-51 on a three-pointer from Jonathan Powell, but could not capitalize on several shots to potentially take the lead. UNC made only nine total shots in the second half and finished 1-14 (7.1 percent) on threes after shooting 7-13 (53.8 percent) from long distance in the first half. Miami finally managed to pull away thanks to baskets from center Ernest Udeh and point guard Tre Donaldson, with a putback from Udeh off his own missed layup with 2:03 remaining extending the lead to 66-60 and effectively breaking the Tar Heels’ backs.
Freshman star Caleb Wilson finished with 12 points but appeared to be bothered by an injury to his left hand, which was wrapped by the UNC training staff midway through the second half. Wilson finished 4-10 from the field. Stevenson was Carolina’s leading scorer with 13, and Henri Veesaar scored 11. For Miami, four starters finished in double figures, led by star Malik Reneau’s 16. Udeh proved to be a matchup problem, finishing with a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double and rocking the rim all night. Miami finished with seven dunks and 12 layups. UNC managed just a single dunk and missed another.
The loss snaps UNC’s five-game winning streak and also provides the Hurricanes with a crucial head-to-head tiebreaker in the ACC standings (the teams entered the night tied at 7-3 in the league). The Tar Heels are now 19-5 overall and 7-4 in ACC play, and will be back in action Saturday when they host Pittsburgh at the Smith Center at 7 p.m.
Featured image via Associated Press/Marta Lavandier
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