Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Hurricanes show promise as basketball season opens
early November form.
After slogging to a 27-23 lead at the intermission, the Hurricanes asserted themselves with a 14-0 surge to open the second half. They pushed the advantage to double digits on a dunk by Huell. The sophomore forward tallied eight of those points while hitting 4 of 5 shots.
The second half was a much better indication what this Miami bunch is capable of as the passes were crisper and the shots fell with more regularity. They shot 64 percent in the second half after a paltry 33.3 percent in the opening 20 minutes.
Huell and senior point guard Ja’Quan Newton led the way as Miami asserted its dominance in the second half.
Gardner-Webb freshman Nate Johnson, a Sun Sentinel first-team All-County choice from McArthur High, made his college debut with four points. Hurricane Women: Miami 77, FIU 69: With three of their top scorers from a season ago lost to graduation and another key contributor sidelined for the season with a knee injury, the Hurricanes women’s basketball team knew there would be some growing pains as they started a new season Friday night.
What the Hurricanes discovered though, in their opener, was that some of their new faces — players who a season ago were playing high school basketball — have the potential to be pretty special players.
Freshman Mykea Gray had a game-high 27 points and fellow freshman Endia Banks added 15 points as Miami opened the season with a 77-69 comeback victory over crosstown rival Florida International University.
But as pleased as she was with their respective abilities to score the ball, Hurricanes coach Katie Meier couldn’t help but notice Gray and Banks led Miami with four and five assists, respectively, too.
“I’m sitting here with two freshmen and I leaned on them the whole game,” Meier said. “It seemed like my upperclassmen — and I love them and we already talked about it — they didn’t start the game with the composure we need. … They can’t be the last-year versions of themselves. … They have to evolve, and these guys were in high school last year. … I was not panicked, uncomfortable, upset, but we do have to evolve and Mykea was scoring good and Endia can really score even more than she showed tonight, but I’m proud of their scoring and they led us in assists, too.”
The Hurricanes, who were 24-9 last year and hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, struggled early and didn’t manage to put FIU away until the final minutes.
Miami, which trailed by as many as 7 points in the second half, closed the game on a 14-3 run that gave the Hurricanes their first win in what will likely be a season of transition.
The only Hurricanes veteran to finish in double figures was Erykah Davenport, who had 11 points and a team-high nine rebounds.
Both the Hurricanes and Panthers showed some of the typical early season rust issues, the teams combining for 43 turnovers.