Miami basketball hosts Wake Forest trying for first back to back wins since 2019

The Miami basketball team hosts Wake Forest on Saturday trying to win back to back games for the first time since they won their fifth straight game on New Year’s eve against Clemson.

The Miami basketball team will host Wake Forest on Saturday after their most impressive victory of the season on Wednesday. Miami throttled Boston College 85-58. The Hurricanes have not won two games in a row since a five-game winning streak concluded with victory at Clemson on New Year’s Eve.

Wake Forest travels to Miami tied with the Hurricanes in the ACC with 4-10 record. Miami is slightly better at 12-12 than Wake Forest’s 11-13 overall record. The Demon Deacons have not won back to back games since they won the final of a three-game winning streak on January 4 at Pittsburgh.

The Miami basketball team is starting to get healthy without playing at full strength. Junior point guard Chris Lykes missed four games and redshirt junior Kam McGusty missed three out of four in late January, early February. The Hurricanes won against Virginia Tech during that slate of games with McGusty scoring three points.

Miami junior forward Sam Waardenburg was the latest Hurricanes player to miss a game. The Kiwi sat out against Boston College Wednesday. It is not known if Waardenburg will be available against Wake Forest. Miami head coach Jim Larranaga made a drastic lineup change against the Eagles with Waardenburg out.

"GAME 25 | FEB. 15, 2020 • 2 P.M. ET • CORAL GABLES, FLA.Wake Forest Demon Deacons (11-13, 4-10 ACC)Head Coach: Danny Manning (Kansas, 1991)Record at WF: 76-106 (sixth season), Career Record: 114-135 (eighth season)Miami Hurricanes (12-12, 4-10 ACC)Head Coach: Jim Larrañaga (Providence, 1971)Record at UM: 187-109 (ninth season), Career Record: 657-443 (36th season)Courtesy HurricaneSport.Com"

Graduate transfer Keith Stone started in the post for Miami surrounded by four guards. Lykes, McGusty, senior Dejan Vasiljevic and freshman Isaiah Wong also started. Wong responded with a career-high 21 points.

After missing the previous game against Florida State, Rodney Miller came off the bench to score 11 points and grab seven rebounds. It was the first game that Miller came off the bench this season. It would not be surprising for Larranaga to start the same lineup against Wake Forest that used against Boston College.

"SERIES HISTORYAll-Time: 11-12 (11-11 since rebirth) | Home: 8-2 | Away: 1-10 | Neutral: 2-0 | Coach L: 6-5 (6-4 at Miami)Streak: Won 1 | Last Meeting: 79-71 neutral-site win (3/12/19) | First Meeting: 46-17 road loss (2/5/40)BROADCAST INFORMATIONRSN • Play-by-Play: Evan Lepler • Color: Mike Gminski | FOX Sports Sun | WatchESPNWQAM 560 AM • Joe Zagacki • Danny Rabinowitz | WQAM.Radio.comWMYM 990 AM • Broderick Zerpa • Jose Martinez • Lorenzo Berry • Daniel Ramirez | Unanimo Deportes | WVUM 90.5 FM • Alex Bitchatchi • Cal Friedman | WVUM.org"

Wong and classmates Harlond Beverly and Anthony Walker improved significantly during the time missed by their teammates. Beverly had nine points, seven rebounds, six assists and two steals against Boston College. The Hurricanes have a favorable schedule to make a run over the last five games of the regular season.

After hosting Wake Forest the Hurricanes play the next three at the road at Virginia Tech, Notre Dame and Georgia Tech. Miami will return home in March to play Virginia and Syracuse to close out the regular season.