Miami "Stuffs" Duke, 81-59
In what was hyped up to be a Miami versus Duke game that would likely go down to the wire, it was everything but that.
From the opening tip, Miami outplayed Duke in practically every facet of the contest. Miami held leads of 13-1 at the 17:09 mark of the first half, as well as 26-10 with 6:24 left to go in the first stanza.
Miami never let up. The second half saw the lead balloon to 26 when guard Nigel Pack threw down a dunk with 4:56 remaining. The final score ended up being 81-59.
For the winning Hurricanes, two of the top three leading scorers were not surprising. Forward Norchad Omier led all scorers with 17, guard Jordan Miller knocked in 16, but it was guard Wooga Poplar that also shot and scored well. He accounted for 14 points and that may have surprised some people.
In actuality, Poplar hit the same scoring total he’d reached two times prior within the last four games for the Canes. If he continues to knock down jumpers like he did against the Blue Devils, he potentially changes how Miami projects for the rest of the regular season and the NCAA tournament. He was a part of a well balanced scoring effort, including a lot of dunks as the following video displayed:
Isaiah Wong was Miami’s leading scorer coming into the contest, and he only scored 11 points. He helped in other ways beyond placing the basketball in the bucket. Wong was active in driving the basketball, as was Pack, Miller, and even Omier at times.
That was actually a theme from last night’s contest. Miami drove the basketball and challenged Duke’s big men – Kyle Filipowski and Dereck Lively II – at the rim. Free throws, second-chance points, and buckets transpired from those drives. Also, another important factor took place.
When the Canes drove the basketball, there were passes back out to the perimeter for open looks. Miami shot 7-17 from downtown, 41.2%. That’s a percentage that head coach Jim Larranaga can live with during any contest.
For Duke, it simply did not feed the big-time freshman, Filipowski, enough times in the post. He finished with nine points, while fellow big man Lively led the Blue Devils with 11 and was the only player for them to reach double digits.
Miami did not allow many of those chances for Filipowski with their harassing defense either.
In total, Miami helped create 21 turnovers for Duke, 13 of which were steals. Active hands, all night long, deflected and intercepted Duke passes. That level of energy helped to hold the Blue Devils to just 40.7% from the field as well.
That statistic also factored into the following: The turnovers and missed shots led Miami to seemingly being in fast-break mode for much of the last 10 minutes of the contest.
Even the size advantage for Duke did not help on the boards; the Hurricanes out rebounded the Blue Devils 38-31. With the tallest starter being Omier at 6-foot-7 and Duke having two true big men, that’s an incredible accomplishment.
Effort, hustle and “want to” led Miami past Duke as much as anything else. Make no mistake, the Hurricanes "stuffed" the Blue Devils.
Next up for No. 19 Miami will be a home game against Louisville on Feb. 11. The game tips off at 7 p.m. on the ACC Network. Duke's next contest will also be on Feb. 11, a road contest at 4 p.m. versus No. 8 Virginia on ESPN.
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