’Canes zoned out vs. Duke

UM needs answers as bulk of ACC awaits

CORAL GABLES — After they’d let a 13-point second-half lead against a top-five team evaporate, the Hurricanes men’s basketball team bemoaned their lack of discipline, their missed shots and the fact they weren’t nearly as aggressive against Duke as they should have been in a crucial ACC matchup.

There were, for the 25th-ranked Hurricanes, few answers after their 83-75 loss to No. 5 Duke on Monday night at the Watsco Center. Miami’s coaches and players do know this, though: with the bulk of their conference schedule ahead of them, the Hurricanes better find ways to address some of their offensive woes quickly.

For much of Monday night, Miami looked primed for a repeat of what happened on its home floor in 2013, when the then 25th-ranked Hurricanes upset then top-ranked Duke.

Early Monday, the Hurricanes played with urgency. Sophomore Dewan Huell, who came into the game as Miami’s leading scorer, was a force, scoring 11 points in a back-and-forth first half that saw 10 lead changes.

In the opening minutes of the second half, the Hurricanes quickly erased a 42-40 halftime deficit, going on a 17-2 run that was fueled by freshmen Chris Lykes and Lonnie Walker IV. During an eight-minute stretch of that run, the Hurricanes forced Duke into eight turnovers, helping Miami build a 59-46 lead.

“The first eight minutes of the second half, they completely dominated us,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. Then, everything changed. Krzyzewski had his Blue Devils (16-2, 4-2) go into a 2-3 zone, and Miami, which had struggled with its perimeter shooting in the first half, went cold. Worse, they looked