Miami Hurricanes Basketball: Green Bay Shocks Miami at Home, Give Hurricanes First Loss of the Season, 68-55

Coming into Saturday the Miami Hurricanes were an undefeated team at 8-0. They left the gym at 8-1 after a 68-55 loss to Green Bay after a poor performance, especially on the offensive end, shooting just 32% from the floor.

We’ve been treated to good Miami basketball through eight games this season, but the first half of Saturday’s game did not fit the bill. It was an abysmal start offensively for Miami, which saw them score only 11 points midway through the first half.

The Canes were held to 30% shooting in the first half and only hit 3 of their 11 three-point attempts. Green Bay played a 3-2 zone for most of the first half and Miami found themselves struggling and settling for contested shots.

Thanks to a combination of bad offense and a good zone, Green Bay jumped out to a 22-11 lead on the Canes until Miami finally found a spark from Tuesday’s hero, Deandre Burnett.

Burnett had 19 points on Tuesday against Illinois and he picked up right where he left off. He led all scorers in the first half with 10 and his two triples got Miami back into the game and limited the damage as the Canes only trailed by 2 heading into the break.

Aside from Burnett, Miami also got a much needed boost from their only graduate student, Joe Thomas. The fifth-year man had 10 rebounds in the first half and was the most active guy for Miami for most of the first half. Thomas went on to finish with a career-high 13 rebounds in this one, while Burnett topped his one-game long career-high with 20 points against the Phoenix.

Green Bay was led by 6 Kenneth Lowe points while Keifer Sykes was held to 5 first half points on 2-for-9 shooting.

The second half was more of the same for the Canes.

Miami couldn’t hit anything from the field on Saturday and most of it had to do with a 3-2 zone that they hadn’t played against all season. The Hurricanes’ best players couldn’t get any rhythm going.

After a big spurt from Green Bay to start the second half, the Phoenix  jumped out to a 48-34 lead over Miami and forced Jim Larranaga to go deep into his bench. So deep in fact, that Davon Reed, who had knee surgery in September, was put into the game and gave Miami a much needed spark off the bench.

Once Reed made his season-debut, the Canes went on a 9-0 run that cut the Green Bay lead to 5, but that was as close as Miami was able to get the rest of the game.

Miami elected to go to a box-and-one to slow down Keifer Sykes but the problem was that the rest of the Green Bay players were hitting shots. Corrington Love had a big game for Green Bay with 20 points and 7 rebounds on 6-for-11 shooting. Jordan Fouse also had a big impact on this one playing the high man in that 3-2 zone for Green Bay. And the much dangerous Sykes finished with 18 points against the Hurricanes, which equals his season average.

This was a tough loss for the Hurricanes, but don’t think that Green Bay is a bad team. The Phoenix have some good young players and Sykes is one of the best guards in the country. With all that being said, it’s still a disappointing first loss for the Miami Hurricanes in front of their home crowd.

Angel Rodriguez really didn’t have a good game and his 2-for-15 shooting performance really affected the team on Saturday. He’ll look to have a big game on Monday against Savannah State.

The positive is that Davon Reed is now back for the Canes and his presence gives the Canes a much-needed defensive stopper and another guy who can put the ball through the hoop offensively.

Miami is back at it on Monday against Savannah State and they’ll try to put this one behind them and improve to 9-1.