Hurricanes hoping to snap tough March streak

CORAL GABLES — Khaila Prather has the distinction of being the only Miami Hurricanes basketball player — male or female — to be a part of five NCAA Tournament teams.

And so, maybe no one on Miami’s roster has a bigger understanding of the frustration the Hurricanes have experienced in recent years as they’ve fielded a series of talented teams that have never made it past the Round of 32 in the tournament.

Miami has never — despite advancing to the postseason in each of the past 10 years under coach Katie Meier — advanced to the Sweet 16 since the NCAA Tournament expanded its field to 64 teams in 1994.

“It would mean everything if we’re the team that finally gets to the Sweet 16,” Prather said early Saturday afternoon, just hours after fourth-seeded Miami edged upset-minded Florida Gulf Coast, 69-62, in a first-round game late Friday night. “Literally, every single year we get to the first round and lose. Or we get to the first and second rounds and we lose. This would be it. It will be it. Not if, it will be it.”

Ahead of their Round of 32 matchup Sunday with fifthseeded Arizona State, most of the Hurricanes — Meier included — tried to downplay what a win over the Sun Devils would mean not just to each of them individually, but to the UM program as a whole.

“We have a game tomorrow against Arizona State and I don’t put anything more than that on it,” Meier said. “I really don’t.”

Instead, the Hurricanes tried to keep the focus on Arizona State and only Arizona State, an understandable sentiment considering Miami’s tournament history of late.

In each of the past three seasons, the Hurricanes have lost twice to Quinnipiac and once to South Dakota State. Miami was the higher seeded team each time.

On Friday night, the Hurricanes (25-8) found themselves struggling again against a lower-seeded opponent as FGCU chipped away at what was, at one point early in the second half, a 14-point Miami lead.

The Eagles — who nearly upset Miami in the first round of the 2017 tournament — even took a brief lead in the fourth quarter before the Hur-

ricanes went on an 11-0 run to distance themselves before eventually securing the win.

“I really felt that they were mature and we’ve been in this situation before and we were going to start making plays and getting stops,” Meier said of the win over FGCU. “I really just saw it in my team, their spirit. They weren’t beaten. They were faithful.”

Miami will again be the higher seed Sunday, though this time not by much. And the fourthseeded Hurricanes are well aware of the challenge posed by Arizona State and veterans Kianna Ibis and Courtney Ekmark, a Connecticut transfer.

The Sun Devils (21-10) have twice this season beaten Oregon State, which was a top-10 team in both matchups. They came up just short in early-season matchups against No. 1 seeds Baylor and Louisville. And with 6-foot-3 center Charnea Johnson-Chapman, 6-foot-1 Ibis and 6-foot Ekmark, they should be able to match up well with Beatrice Mompremier and Emese Hof, Miami’s two first-team All-ACC post players.

“I’m expecting them to play really hard. … They’re going to be ready. We’re expecting they sub a lot of players, they play eight, nine, 10 deep,” Miami redshirt junior guard Laura Cornelius said. “They looked good against UCF. We’re going to give it our all.”

Added Hof, “They played a lot of close games against really good teams, [lost by] two points against Louisville in the beginning of the season. They’re definitely a good team, but so are we. We’re excited for this matchup.”