Miscues, Lattimore injury are costly to Hurricanes
University of Miami women’s basketball coach Katie Meier said Thursday night was “the first time we literally played our guts out this season,” but the effort wasn’t enough. The Hurricanes turned the ball over 28 times, committed 26 fouls and lost 76-64 at home to the 17thranked Michigan Wolverines in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
“It was intense, physical, dramatic,” Meier said. “Obviously, our composure wasn’t where it needed to be in terms of passing the ball to each other. A lot of our turnovers were off the ball, stepping out of bounds, fumbles in key moments.
“But Michigan was ranked in the nation defensively, giving up 49 points a game, played a heck of a schedule. They’re a hard team. I really like their team, extremely well coached and really smart.”
The Hurricanes had no answers for Michigan’s Leigha Brown and Emily Kiser, who went 13 of 22 and combined for 46 of the Wolverines’ points. Brown went a perfect 12 of 12 from the free throw line and Michigan shot 92.3 percent from the stripe (22 of 24).
By the end of the night, UM’s Lola Pendande had fouled out and four other Hurricanes players were in foul trouble with four fouls.
“I am proud of my gutsy team that battled with a lot of adversity, five people with four or more fouls, it was rough, a lot to handle,” Meier said.
Haley Cavinder led Miami with 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting and had six rebounds and three assists in 36 minutes. Her twin sister, Hanna, got in just three minutes and did not score.
“What I loved about Haley is she was running the show, calling plays, suggesting things to me, talking in the huddles, competing her tail off for her team with heavy, heavy, heavy minutes,” Meier said. “She had a real nice stat line, but it was her demeanor [that impressed me], like, `OK, Haley, this can be your team. Let’s go.’ And I feel
like we’re at that moment right now.’’
Cavinder, who transferred with her sister from Fresno State, said she is feeling more comfortable taking on a leadership role.
“I came into such a great team with good culture, good leadership form top to bottom, so I’m just learning,” Cavinder said. “But I feel I can bring something to the team.”
In addition to losing the game, the Hurricanes
(6-3) lost sophomore forward Latasha Lattimore to
injury. She went down under the basket in the second quarter, writhed in pain for several minutes and hopped off the court with her right leg bearing no weight. She was in a brace after the game and Meier said it was unknown how long she would be out.
It was the second loss in a row for the Hurricanes, who lost 78-71 to Columbia last Sunday in the championship game of the UM Thanksgiving Tournament. UM guard Ja’Leah Williams scored a careerhigh 28 points in that game on 10-of-14 shooting.
It was a different story for Williams against Michigan. She went 0 for 7 in 22 minutes, and finished with two assists, seven turnovers and four fouls.
“You don’t have your career high and then have one of the best defensive teams in the country come in and think you weren’t the first person they talked about,” Meier said of Williams’ struggles. “Ja’Leah will learn that lesson. Congrats to her for having the career high in the game before, but Michigan was not going to let her do what she did against Columbia and we all knew that.”
Graduate student Destiny Harden, one of the team leaders, was also held scoreless in the first half but scored 13 in the second half. LaShae
Dwyer added 12 points and a career-high eight rebounds.
“LaShae, the shortest player on our team, had a career high in rebounding, and that’s just guts,”
Meier said. “We couldn’t be happier with her progress this year.”
The Hurricanes fell behind 21-13 in the first quarter but went on an 11-2 run early in the second quarter to tie it up at 28-28. Miami trailed 34-31 at intermission.
UM closed to gap to two points on a Karla Erjavic driving layup midway through the third quarter, but three consecutive UM turnovers led to six straight Michigan points and the Wolverines went on a 13-4 run to stretch the lead to 66-50.
The Wolverines (8-0) were coming off a big win over No. 21 Baylor in the final of the Gulf Coast Showcase in Estero. Fifthyear Michigan senior Emily Kiser was voted tournament MVP after scoring 26 points and grabbing 13 rebounds against the Bears.
Kiser had another big night against the Hurricanes with 20 points. Brown led the Wolverines with 26 points.
UM is back home for the next two games — Sunday at 2 p.m. against North Florida, and Dec. 11 at 4 p.m. against the Florida Gators.