After a stagnant performance on both sides of the ball against mid-major Southern Miss, the Miami Hurricanes took care of business in the second half to remain a perfect 6-0 at home with a 88-64 win.
Despite the lopsided final score, it was the Golden Eagles who got out to an early lead with a 8-0 run.
From there on out, sloppy ball movement and poor decision making led it to be an ugly yet contested first half.
Southern Miss had 11 turnovers compared to Miami’s eight, but the Golden Eagles did have the hot hand from the field, making 50% of its first half shots compared to UM’s 35%.
A major storyline through Miami’s first 10 games has been the team’s inconsistency from beyond the arc. Some nights, like the last outing against Ole Miss, the shots fall, and others they don’t.
In the first half of the game, the Hurricanes went just 3-for-10 from deep, a 30% mark.
Despite Southern Miss leading 24-19 at one point Miami was able to tie the game 34-34 at half in parts to 13 points from Reneau.
“Our intensity, our energy, our effort was there in the second half and it was not there at all in the first half,” first-year UM head coach Jai Lucas said.
In the second half, Miami showed Southern Miss what it is like to play in a power four conference.
Freshman Shelton Henderson moved the score to 43-40 at the 15:49 mark, and from that point momentum fully shifted in favor of the Hurricanes.
And after a corner three from freshman forward Timotej Malovec to move the score to 47-44, the Hurricanes went on a 17-2 run.
After shooting 1-for-4 from deep in the first half, Malovec dialed in with 13 second half points, shooting 3-for-6 from behind the arc in an increased role.
“It takes time. I’m happy for those minutes,” Malovec said. “ I hope to do a good job, and we just have to wait for the guys to get back, and we keep stacking good days and getting good days.”
Miami’s shooting numbers were much better in the back half of the game, shooting 57% from the floor.
Senior guard Tre Donaldson continued his great play as point guard, registering his second double-double of the season with 12 points and a career-high 11 assists.
At the 1:44 mark in the second half Miami led by as much as 27 as they cruised to its eighth victory of the season.
The Hurricanes look to get healthy during their three non-conference games.before ACC play later this december.
Miami will be back at the Watsco Center on Dec. 13 to take on ULM at noon and will air on ACCNX.
