The Mustangs Dust the Hurricanes As Miami's Losing Streak Extends to Seven
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CORAL GABLES, — The Miami Hurricanes (4-14, 0-7 ACC) suffers its worst defeat of the season to the SMU Mustangs (14-4, 5-2 ACC) 117-74 as they prepare to burn this season from the record books.
The Hurricanes struggled to find the basketball early while SMU found ways to score on every level against the Canes. With seven minutes remaining in the first half, the Mustangs only had 4 empty possessions. Two were missed shots while the other two were turnovers.
To get a grasp of how bad the first half was for the Hurricanes look at the plus/minus for each player.
The second half the Canes showed a bit of life getting into the bonus early and getting the line often. However, trying to cut a near 40 point lead is near impossible and it was for the Hurricanes.
As the game progressed they eventually started to miss a few more shots but not many. The Mustangs finished the game shooting 70 percent from the field, 54 percent from three-point range and only missing 17 shots. It was an all-around effort from SMU with 10 players on its roster scoring and six finishing with double digits.
Miami on the other hand just looked bad. Losing to No. 3 Duke in the fashion they did last game was expected but this performance at home was even worse.
Matthew Cleveland continues to be the only positive for the Hurricanes giving everything he has into these lopsided losses. Cleveland finished with 31 points leading all scorers in the game, while the next players close to those stats were a returning Divine Ugochukwu, Lynn Kidd, and Brandon Johnson scoring seven. For Johnson, he hit his first three-pointer since the Canes last won against Presbyterian.
Another key is the body language of the team and one of their key freshman, Jalil Bethea. Losing in this way has not been nice for the rising star as he has been visibility frustrated in the game and on the sideline.
Bethea is the highest recruit in program history and many of these players, including him are just counting down the days until they can enter the portal at the end of the season. The Hurricanes are ready to clean house the second this season ends.
Miami will now travel to the west coast to face a hot Stanford team at 11:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday
READ MORE FROM MIAMI HURRICANES ON SI:
Can the Men's Basketball Season be Redeemed?: Just a Minute
Matthew Cleveland's Advice is to 'Just Smile'
REPORT: No Time Table for the Return of Nijel Pack
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Justice Sandle is a graduate of Mississippi State University earning a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Communications with a concentration in Print and Digital Journalism. During his time in Starkville, he spent a year as an intern working for Mississippi State On SI primarily covering basketball, football, baseball, and soccer while writing, recording, and creating multimedia stories during his tenor. Since graduating, he has assumed the role of lead staff writer for Miami Hurricanes On SI covering football, basketball, baseball, and all things Hurricanes related.