Miami defeats Notre Dame 79-70

[Peter Ariz]

CORAL GABLES, Fla. - The ACC game tends to be be kinder to experienced upperclassmen, but during Wednesday night’s battle between Miami and Notre Dame, the spotlight belonged to Canes Freshman Anthony Lawrence who ignited a big victory.

The Canes shot a scorching 63% from the field in the first half, led by Lawrence’s 11 points. The freshman wing finished the game with a career-high 18, topping his 13-point performance against Nebraska earlier in the season.

“I’ve been playing good all week in practice and once I saw that first one go down, I had the confidence already,” Lawrence said. “I kept shooting and my teammates
kept finding me.”

Notre Dame coach Mike Brey admitted that his team was not exactly expecting the breakout game from Miami’s freshman.

“He was fabulous. He really hurt us,” Brey said. “It’s one of those things where maybe you can live with him getting some looks and you worry about the other guys but he jumped up and really hurt us.”

The game was tied at 24 at the 6:22 mark in the first half, before the Canes went on a 15-5 run over the next four and a half minutes and maintained that ten-point lead for the remainder of the half.

After dropping a conference game on the road against NC State last Saturday, the Hurricanes came out firing in the first half on Wednesday night in the Bank United Center. Miami scored 45 points in the first half and held a 12-point lead over the Fighting Irish at halftime.

The Fighting Irish came into this matchup having won five of their last six games. Point guard Demetrius Jackson had an unusually quiet night. Jackson averages 16.5 points per game, but scored only six tonight on 3-11 shooting. Miami held ND’s second-leading scorer Zach Auguste (14 points per game) scoreless for the first half and he finished the game with 12.

Tonye Jekiri, the ACC’s fifth-leading rebounder, played tough for the Canes inside and finished the game with 12 rebounds. At the nine-minute mark of the second half, Jekiri and Notre Dame forward Bonzie Colson were assessed double technical fouls as the two wrestled for possession of the ball after the whistle was blown.

Miami’s lead bounced out to 16 early in the second half, as the Canes continued to get good looks at the basket. Brey called a timeout at the 12:41 mark when his Fighting Irish team was trailing 58-43. Over the next three minutes, Miami’s lead jumped to 62-45. The Canes won by a final score of 79-70.

With the loss, Notre Dame’s record now drops to 15-7 (6-4 ACC) and Miami moves to 17-4 (6-3). Up next for the Canes is a road game at Georgia Tech 12-10 (2-7), which will be at 1 P.M. on Sunday. The game will air on ESPNU.

 

[nickster]

Lawrence was outstanding and it looks like Angel is playing much better. Miffed on what Coach sees in Cruz but maybe I'm missing something. Kid seems like a major liability but I know he must spell our bigger men. If Jekeri could develop a much more aggressive down low game it would be impressive. Never seen a kid that size get rejected so many times at the basket and last night it was the rim. He needs to go up with the basketbal strong and dunk. Great victory for the Canes!

 

[nyibis]

The guys seem to be able to beat up on teams with lesser talent and experience but struggle with the teams with equal talent and good coaching.
I think we have a lot of room for improvement.

I would love to see a team come out with a well scouted game plan and execute with devastating efficiency every game. We have the experienced mature players to be more assertive.

We have to get better on the boards at both ends, we seem to be out positioned in order to dominate.
We can play great defense and then give up a rebound and have to defend a new clock or give up a put back basket.
On offense against the zone we move the ball well around the perimeter and then settle for a jump shot with no chance for a put back basket.
We need to get better at attacking the zone. Our outside shooting is generally, we can have hot spurts, not good enough to dominate even with a lot of open looks. We have to get better penetration.

This is nit-picking a good team that we want to be great.
It has been fun watching every game but I wish I would see more improvement from game to game at this point in the season.

GO CANES!!!!!

 

[Notsince1985]

Lawrence was outstanding and it looks like Angel is playing much better. Miffed on what Coach sees in Cruz but maybe I'm missing something. Kid seems like a major liability but I know he must spell our bigger men. If Jekeri could develop a much more aggressive down low game it would be impressive. Never seen a kid that size get rejected so many times at the basket and last night it was the rim. He needs to go up with the basketbal strong and dunk. Great victory for the Canes!

In Cruz-Uceda, he sees someone who can spell Jekiri and Murphy. An extra, big body. He's also shooting 46% from 3s.

With that said, and this is the most important part, he's only playing 16.5 minutes a game for the entire season, and 14 minutes in ACC play. He played 9 minutes last night, 10 against NCSU, 11 against Duke, 12 against BC, 15 against Wake. His minutes are going WAY down. Coach realizes he's not getting it done, and he's not playing much. Same with Palmer. I don't understand the obsession with bashing ICU and Coach L for playing him. It's not like he's playing him 20 or 25 or more minutes a game. Dude has been getting 14 in ACC play, and less than that since he's been struggling lately.

 

[Freddie Bear]

The team played very well last night. Tonye looks hurt. Angel was very effective, did more doing less. Sheldon is mr consistency. Newton continues to impress. Coach L is pushing all the right buttons. Terrific call on Lawrence, that's a coach who knows his players. And of course congrats to Anthony on his breakout performance.

 

[Notsince1985]

Tonye hasn't looked the same since he got "hurt" against Florida. Coincidence?