Hurricanes Face Georgia Tech Looking For Rare ACC Road Win
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ATLANTA (CBSMiami/SportsDirect) – The University of Miami Men's Basketball Team is looking to regain the consistency it showed during the first months of the season.
No. 15 Miami will look to turn around its ACC road woes when it visits Georgia Tech on Sunday afternoon.
The Hurricanes are just 1-3 in conference games away from Coral Gables and will be facing a team that is more dangerous than its record suggests.
Miami rebounded from an ugly 85-69 road loss at North Carolina State with a 79-70 home win against Notre Dame that was fueled by an 18-point breakout game from freshman forward Anthony Lawrence, who had scored four points in 39 minutes in seven previous ACC appearances.
"(Lawrence) had gone through a period where he was not playing at all, not playing much, yet in the last few practices, he was terrific" Miami coach Jim Larranaga told reporters after the game. "We actually played him at the point of our scout team to simulate (Notre Dame's) Demetrius Jackson, and he did one heck of an imitation, to the point where I felt like if he could handle the ball like that against Angel Rodriguez, he gives us another weapon offensively that we can really use."
The Yellow Jackets led Duke 40-36 at halftime in their most recent game and trailed just 54-53 with 11:59 left before the Blue Devils went on an 18-2 run on their way to an 80-71 win.
Georgia Tech's average margin of defeat in its seven ACC losses is only 5.6 points with the nine-point defeat against Duke the largest margin.
ABOUT MIAMI (17-4, 6-3 ACC): Lawrence's performance, which included 4-of-4 shooting from 3-point range, gives Larranaga another bench weapon to go with sophomore point guard Ja'Quan Newton (11.9 points per game) and 3-point specialist Ivan Cruz Uceda (6.1 points, 45.4 percent on 3-pointers).
Leading scorer Sheldon McClellan (16.1 points) ranks first among ACC guards in shooting percentage (52.7) while senior point guard Rodriguez (11.7) has 22 assists in his last three games.
After a quiet five-rebound game against N.C. State, senior 7-footer Tonye Jekiri (8.0 points, 9.9 rebounds) pulled down 12 against the Fighting Irish.
ABOUT GEORGIA TECH (12-10, 2-7): The offense is led by senior guard Marcus Georges-Hunt (team-leading 15.6 points) and graduate student Adam Smith (14.5), who leads the ACC in 3-pointers made (3.19 per game) and is fifth in 3-point percentage (41.9).
Forward Nick Jacobs, the team's third-leading scorer (11.5), has reached double figures in seven consecutive games, averaging 15.4 points during that stretch.
Senior forward Charles Mitchell, coming off a quiet two-point, six-rebound game, averages 10.9 points and leads the ACC in rebounding (10.5).
TIP INS
- Georges-Hunt scored 24 points on 10-of-12 shooting in Georgia Tech's 70-50 upset of the Hurricanes in Miami last season.
- Miami allowed Notre Dame to grab 17 offensive rebounds and now plays a Georgia Tech team that is 20th in the nation in offensive rebounds per game (13.8).
- The Hurricanes limited the Fighting Irish to eight foul shots after N.C. State had 31 attempts in the previous game.
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