Depleted Hurricanes lose lead in 2nd half, fall to Irish
The injury-ravaged Miami Hurricanes lost 71-61 at Notre Dame as Chris Lykes remained on the injured list. Earl Timberlake is out for the season.
The narrative is starting to feel all-too familiar to University of Miami basketball fans: They get hopeful Chris Lykes will return from his long injury layoff, on game day he isn’t fit to go, the short-handed Hurricanes get themselves in position to win, but come up short.
It happened again Sunday night at Notre Dame. Miami led by two with 6:40 to go, but made a series of costly mistakes, the Irish capitalized with a 14-2 run and pulled away for a 71-61 victory.
Three UM guards played 38-plus minutes apiece. Isaiah Wong scored a team-high 17 points over 39 minutes. Elijah Olaniyi also went 39 minutes and had 11 points and seven rebounds. Kam McGusty added 12 points and five rebounds in 38 minutes.
“There’s fatigue during the game because we can’t substitute,” coach Jim Larrañaga said. “When Notre Dame goes with five guys who can shoot the three, we’ve got to have five guys out there who can defend the three. They’ve been doing it all season long, trying to push through the fatigue.”
UM was coming off an overtime loss to Virginia Tech. Three of their
losses were by one or two points, and a few other games they saw secondhalf leads disappear.
Forward Anthony Walker recorded a double-double — 14 points, 10 rebounds. Center Nysier Brooks also had 10 rebounds. Only six players were truly in action, as the seventh, Deng Gak, went in for three minutes and came out with sore knees.
Despite the depleted roster, and a six-minute dry spell late in the first half, Miami was tied 31-31 with Notre Dame at halftime and led 54-52 after a threepointer by Olaniyi.
“Both teams really battled in the first half, neither one of us could gain much of an advantage,” Larrañaga said. “We had defended the three very well. Notre Dame is such a proficient three-point shooting team and they shot 25 percent from three. But they score a lot of different ways.
With four minutes to go, it was a winnable game. They finished very strong and we missed a couple of layups.”
The Canes also struggled
from the free-throw line. Miami went 12-of-21 (57 percent) while the Irish shot 80 percent.
“It’s very, very frustrating,” Larranñga said.
“Guys do a good job of getting fouled and don’t cash in at the foul line. There’s not much you can do or say. We’ve got some guys who are good free throw shooters, and some who are not. Unfortunately, the ones who are not were the ones getting fouled.”
The Hurricanes dominated in the paint early and held a five-point lead after a trio of baskets by Walker. But then they went cold, going 2-of-19 over the last 10 minutes of the first half and failed to build on their lead.
Nikola Djogo led the Irish with 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting. Nate Laszewski added 14 as the Irish have won six of their past eight games.
Lykes, a preseason AllACC point guard, was expected to make his return from a sprained ankle that has kept him out of action since Dec. 4. But he tweaked it in practice Thursday, felt better during shootaround Sunday, but when it came time for the game, he was still unACC
comfortable and was held out.
“It’s crazy what we’ve been going through,” Larranñga said. “Saturday Chris practiced, did a nice job and I thought he was going to play, but [Sunday] the foot area was bothering him again. It’s very, very frustrating for him and all of us, but we don’t want to take any chances. Maybe he’ll play next Saturday. Up until 3 o’clock [Sunday] we didn’t know if Chris was going to be able to really go.”
The coach also announced that freshman
Earl Timberlake will miss the rest of the season with an injured left shoulder. He was diagnosed with a condition that requires at least six weeks of rest. “Every time he tried to play, he aggravated the condition, so he was told he needs six straight weeks of doing nothing. He’ll rest and hopefully he can start preparing for next year some time in April.”
The Hurricanes (7-12, 3-11 ACC) are in 14th place of 15 ACC teams. They are back home Saturday for a noon game against Georgia Tech (10-8, 6-6).