Duke cruises in dominant victory over Miami basketball
Duke got off to a dominant first half and cruised to an easy 95-62 victory over the Miami basketball team at the Watsco Center on Saturday night. The loss ended the Hurricanes five-game winning streak and dropped them to 9-4 overall.
Duke was dominant in everyway. The Blue Devils took control with about eight minutes remaining in the first half. Duke extended a 28-25 lead as they took a 50-36 advantage over the Miami basketball team into halftime. The Hurricanes’ performance was underwhelming after turning the season around.
Duke outshot Miami, shared the ball better in a more efficient offense and dominated on the boards. An early raucous crowd at the Watsco Center was taken out of the game early. Miami native Vernon Carey Jr. had a dominant return home. Carey had 24 points, nine rebounds and made 11-14 from the floor.
While Duke’s best player went off, Chris Lykes’ subpar game was the undoing for the Miami basketball team. Lykes finished with eight points and four assists but made just 2-15 from the floor missed all three of his three-point attempts. Dejan Vasiljevic also struggled scoring nine points on 3-9 from the floor and 1-3 from three.
Miami cannot win with Lykes and Vasiljevic combining for 17 points on 5-24 from the floor. Kameron McGusty and Sam Waardenburg tried to keep the Hurricanes in the game. McGusty who entered Saturday night’s game averaging 15.2 PPG led Miami with 12 on 4-7 from the floor. Waardenburg added 11.
Lykes, McGusty and Vasikjevic entered the game averaging a combined 46.2 PPG. They combined for 28 against Duke. The Blue Devils dominated the game by nearly every measure. Duke outshot Miami 59.7 to 39.7 percent, made 42.9 percent of their three-point attempts to 16.7 for Miami and outrebounded the Hurricanes 41-24.
There was more to assert the dominance Duke had over Miami. The Blue Devils used an efficient offense while Miami, predominantly McGusty and Lykes settled for too many shots without moving the ball. On several possessions, either Lykes or McGusty brought the ball into the frontcourt and took a shot without one pass.
Duke had 23 assists to just six for Miami, an 18 to four advantage in fast break points, outscored Miami 23 to eight in points off turnovers and outscored the Hurricanes 64-38 in points in the paint. It was about a throughout shellacking by the Blue Devils as possible. Freshman Cassius Stanley had 20 points on 8-11 from the floor.
Vernon Carey Jr made his own decision to attend Duke. dark. Next
In the pre-game press conference on Friday Miami head coach Jim Larranaga discussed the gauntlet of a schedule that the Hurricanes face in January. Miami has to regroup and will travel to number seven Louisville who lost to Florida State 78-65 at home on Saturday. Louisville won 87-74 in the season opener in Coral Gables.