
In one of college basketball’s premier venues, Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke University set the stage for a showdown between the ACC’s best Duke Blue Devils (15-2, 7-0 ACC) and the ACC’s worst Miami Hurricanes (4-13, 0-6 ACC).
When you play at Duke you have to deal with one of the rowdiest student sections in the country, the Cameron Crazies. The noise of the crowd and the talent of the third-best team of the country led them to beat down Miami all night. The Blue Devils won in blowout fashion, 89-54.
Matching their season-worst losing streak, the Hurricanes have now dropped six consecutive games. In an all-around ugly performance, there aren’t many ‘Canes to highlight. However, the struggling Lynn Kidd had himself an evening, scoring 20 points and starting the game off scoring 10 of Miami’s first 12 points. The only other ‘Cane in double-digit scoring was Austin Swartz. He scored 11, shooting 3-5 from long-range in 27 minutes of play.
Matthew Cleveland has lit up the box score in the previous six games, averaging 20.5 points per game. His success fared differently in North Carolina. Cleveland only scored two points, shooting 0-3 from the field in his 28 minutes of action. Duke’s stifling perimeter defense gave Cleveland and the whole team trouble all night, as seen from the margin of victory.
Miami’s Lynn Kidd secured the opening tip for his team, and 14 seconds later Five-Star Freshman Cooper Flagg stole the ball and dished it to Kon Knueppel for a quick layup. Miami competed for the first few minutes of the game and at the 16:11 mark of the first half, the score was 9-8 in favor of the Blue Devils. Throughout the season Miami has competed early and then collapsed. History once again repeats itself for the orange and green.
Duke would quickly extend its lead, going on a 13-0 run in roughly a three minute span thanks to Mason Gillis and Knueppel. He continued to be unguardable and dominated all night, finishing the game with a career high 25 points on a near perfect 9-11 shooting.
As the clock kept winding down in the first , the margin kept getting bigger as at one point Duke had a massive 28 point lead. Miami would go on a late 7-0 run to close the half. The score was 50-26 with one half down and one to go.
The second half was similar to the first, Duke dominated throughout the whole entire game. Duke shot 53.1 % from three point range alone. Flagg would contribute with 13 points.
Miami could not sustain any momentum for a vast majority of the game resulting in their biggest loss of the season. The Hurricanes will return to Coral Gables to play the SMU Mustangs, for their very first ACC basketball matchup. Tip-off is scheduled for Saturday at 2 p.m.