Tar Heels Fall Flat in Blowout Loss at Miami
CORAL GABLES, Florida — Thanks to a lethargic effort by the Tar Heels, when they fell behind early in the game, the Miami Hurricanes were able to capitalize on their mistakes, giving them a 85-57 victory at the Watsco Center, in front of 5,979 fans in attendance – including former MLB star, Alex Rodriguez.
Sophomore Guard, Isaiah Wong (Piscataway, NJ), led the Hurricanes with 25 points, along with the sixth-year Redshirt Senior Forward from Auckland, New Zealand named Sam Waardenburg, adding a career-high of 21 points. In addition to this, the Miami Hurricanes caused the biggest halftime deficit in the Tar Heels’ prestigious history, as they trailed at the half, by the score of 49-22.
“There was no question that our guys were ready to play and execute our game plan to perfection,” Miami Hurricanes Head Coach Jim Larrañaga explained. He added, “The advantages we had is that we had a lot of rest and energy, as well as having a week to prepare. We had to slow down Armando Bacot in limiting his possession.” He instructed, “There is no one guy who can guard him (Bacot). He was not able to get in a good rhythm in the game.”
The lone bright spot for the Tar Heels, was when star Junior Power Forward Armando Bacot recorded his eighth-straight double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Towards the conclusion of the game, he took a scary fall when he contested a shot from the Hurricanes’ Charlie Moore. However, he was able to recover quickly and was unaffected, as he walked toward the bench. The Tar Heels shot an abysmal 33% from the floor. This was the second consecutive game that the Heels were without Redshirt Sophomore Guard Anthony Harris for undisclosed reasons.
On the Tar Heels’ Mentality, Coach Hubert Davis commented, “I don’t know. Times throughout the year, I feel that there has been a change of mentality, effort, and toughness. Then, when we have a game like this, I am very disappointed. Our fight, competitiveness, and effort. I’m very disappointed.” He added, “In order to have a good team, you have to have leadership. You have to have someone outside of me and the coaching staff who has a voice in the locker room that’s amongst the players that bind us together. I’ve never seen a good team absent of that. At this moment, we don’t have any. That’s something that has to change and needs to change. At this point, it’s not happening.” He also stated, “There has to be a change in competitiveness and effort and there’s no way out of this. The only way that you have a chance to get out of it, is that you have to fight!”
“We were prepared, yet didn’t play,” Davis explained. He added, “That’s the frustrating part…We were prepared, but at this point, we just didn’t play.”
The Tar Heels travel to Winston-Salem, to face Tobacco Road Rival — the Wake Forest Demon Deacons on Saturday, January 22nd at 8 PM at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on a game televised on ACC Network. On the other hand, the Miami Hurricanes will host their in-state and conference rivals — the Florida State Seminoles, in a 2:00 PM game on Saturday on either ESPN or ESPN2. The Tar Heels will return home on Monday, January 24th, in a battle against Virginia Tech at 8 PM, on ACC Network.