National Basketball Association
Miami-Florida 89, Navy 55
When: 4:00 PM ET, Sunday, November 12, 2017
Where: Watsco Center, Coral Gables, Florida
Officials:
# Tim Nestor, # Bert Smith, # Tim Clougherty
Attendance:
6611
By The Sports Xchange
CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Coach Jim Larranaga said he was concerned with two things with his Miami team as the season neared. One was defense, the other rebounding.
So far, so good for his 13th-ranked Hurricanes.
Miami had both on display for the full 40 minutes Sunday and rolled to an 89-55 victory over Navy.
The Hurricanes coasted to the win by holding the Midshipmen to just 33.3 percent shooting and outrebounding Navy 42-33.
"I was very proud for how hard we played for all 40 minutes," Larranaga said. "I thought the defense was very good, but the effort was outstanding. I think we learned some things about ourselves."
Sophomore forward Dewan Huell recorded his first career double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds and sophomore guard DJ Vasiljevic scored a game-high 16 points as the Hurricanes (2-0) placed five players in double figures for a second straight outing.
And that was with guard Bruce Brown, who recorded a triple-double in the opener, struggling from the field. Brown shot 1 of 10 and scored only three points.
"For us to have five guys in double figures and him not to be one it says we've got good balance," Larranaga said.
Vasiljevic picked up a good bit of the slack.
After going only 2 of 12 from the field and 1 of 10 from 3-point range Friday night against Gardner-Webb, the Aussie spot-up 3-point shooter hit half of his eight attempts from beyond the arc and was 5 of 10 overall.
"I missed a few shots that Friday which I should have made," he said, "But I stayed afterwards and this morning went through the routine and shots dropped today. So I didn't change nothing."
Navy (1-1) had a late home game Friday night against Pittsburgh and had little opportunity to prepare after arriving in Miami on Saturday afternoon just 25 hours before tipoff.
"We had a walk-through here in the practice facility and that was it," Navy coach Ed DeChellis said. "It was a tough turnaround but we didn't handle the ball. We didn't do the things we needed to do to be successful."
Junior guard Hasan Abdullah scored 13 points to lead the Midshipmen.
Senior guards Shawn Anderson and Bryce Dulin, however, scored only six points between them after combining for 33 against Pitt.
Unlike their opener, when Gardner-Webb jumped out to a 7-0 lead, the Hurricanes got out of the gate quickly against the Middies. They were up 9-0 at the 15:33 mark of the first half and worked their way to a 27-12 cushion over the next eight minutes.
They owned a 19-point advantage (31-12) with 6:47 left in the first half, at which point they were 12 of- 20 (60 percent) from the field to Navy's 5-of-20 effort (25 percent).
The visitors then ran off nine consecutive points to get their deficit down to 31-21 before the Hurricanes went on a 10-0 spurt to assume their biggest lead of the half, 20 points at 41-21.
The half ended with the Hurricanes leading 41-24 and shooting 45.5 percent from the field on their way to 54.7 for the game. Navy warmed up only slightly, finishing the half at 27.3 percent and the game at 33.3.
Miami's biggest lead of the game was the 34-point final margin.
NOTES: Sunday marked the first time that Navy played two Atlantic Coast Conference opponents in the same season since 1997-98, when the Middies opened at Wake Forest and closed against North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament. ... After going just 10 of 21 from the free throw line in the opener, Miami was 10 of 16 against Navy ... F Sam Waardenburg, a 6-foot-10 redshirt freshman, missed a second straight game for Miami while coping with a back issue but may play when the Hurricanes host Florida A&M Thursday night. ... Navy plays Penn on Wednesday night in Philadelphia's Palestra.
Top Game Performances
Navy |
|
Miami-Florida |
Hasan Abdullah 13 |
Scoring |
Dejan Vasiljevic 16 |
Bryce Dulin 4 |
Assists |
Bruce Brown 6 |
Bryce Dulin 8 |
Rebounds |
Dewan Huell 10 |
George Kiernan 3 |
Free Throws Made |
Dewan Huell 2 |
Hasan Abdullah 3 |
Steals |
Chris Lykes 2 |
Tom Lacey 2 |
Blocks |
Ebuka Izundu 2 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
Navy
|
55 |
33.3 |
6-21 |
7-9 |
14 |
29 |
2 |
7 |
16 |
Miami-Florida
|
89 |
54.7 |
9-23 |
10-16 |
15 |
37 |
7 |
9 |
12 |