Miami women’s basketball wowed the crowd at the Watsco Center on Sunday afternoon in what ended up being one of their best games this season. As their last home game of the season and first win after a five game losing streak, this 62-60 victory over Wake Forest was definitely meaningful to the seniors.
Throughout the entirety of the game, Miami’s shooting percentage was the team’s achilles heel. UM’s shots were not dropping, and Wake Forest was able to take advantage of this from early on. The Hurricanes trailed the Demon Deacons from the beginning of the first quarter up until the middle of the fourth quarter, where they truly came to life.
With outside shooting working against Miami’s favor, the team still had one shining star throughout the game: Cameron Williams. She went 9-10 from the field, tallied 11 rebounds, and led the team in scoring with 23 points, which was her season high. She led the team, both offensively and defensively, and only sat out for 24 seconds in the entire game.
“I thought Cam was exceptional tonight,” said head coach Tricia Cullop. “she was phenomenal in finding those opportunities, and it was a lot of work.” “She played a lion’s share of the game.”
The fourth quarter of the game proved to be the most crucial, as Natalija Marshall’s two made free throws gave UM its first lead since the beginning of the first quarter. The teams scored back and forth, making the outcome seem uncertain.
With 28 seconds left in the game and the Hurricanes down by two points, Miami had the chance to secure the win with their possession. Wake Forest double teamed Haley Cavinder, so she threw a pass to Williams, who was able to find Darrione Rogers open in the corner. Rogers sank the three pointer, the crowd went wild, and the ’Canes took the lead.
“As soon as I saw Cam make eye contact with me, I said oh, yeah, it’s going up – and it went in,” said Rogers in the postgame press conference.
As the Hurricanes celebrated their win, though, they reminded themselves of what is still ahead.
“We know what’s at stake, we’re trying to make it to the ACC tournament, so now it’s one of those, we have to take every game, one game at a time,” added Rogers.
The Hurricanes face Stanford on Thursday as they round out their regular season on the road.