Sharp shooting Vasiljevic leads Miami Hurricanes to 80-65 home win over Georgia Tech
The week started off badly for the University of Miami men’s basketball team. The Hurricanes lost a road game at Boston College and then their return flight was delayed nearly 24 hours. But everything went Miami’s way on Saturday as they cruised to an 80-65 victory over Georgia Tech.
After a 1-8 start in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Miami has won three of its past five games, and one of the losses was in overtime on to road to No. 8 North Carolina.
“At Boston College we didn’t have the energy we needed, but the other four games we’ve played about as well as we can,” said UM coach Jim Larranaga, whose team improved to 12-14 overall and 4-10 in the league.
The Hurricanes dominated from the opening whistle on Saturday, taking a 17-6 lead and then opening up a 30-13 cushion with eight minutes to go before halftime. Center Ebuka Izundu made his presence felt in the paint and the Hurricanes were hitting from long-range.
DJ Vasiljevic made five three-pointers and led Miami with 21 points. Izundu finished with 18 points and nine rebounds. Anthony Lawrence, playing more point guard than usual to capitalize on his height, was one assist shy of a triple-double with 16 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists. Chris Lykes chipped in 11 points.
Larranaga called Lawrence into his office Friday and told him to expect to play more minutes at the point because at 6-7 he’d have a better chance than 5-7 Lykes of passing over Georgia Tech’s zone defense. The strategy worked.
“They play a zone and sometimes corners are open, so with Chris being so small I’m able to throw the ball over the defense and make an easier pass to the corner,” Lawrence said. “I made a couple of passes to DJ in the corner.”
The Hurricanes had 10 steals and an assist-to-turnover ratio that made Larranaga happy – 20 assists, 11 turnovers. UM coaches tell the players before every game that if they get at least 16 assists and no more than 11 turnovers they have a good chance of winning.
Lykes, Anthony Mack and Sam Waardenburg hit three three-pointers in a row during a 13-3 run and UM led 39-23 at intermission. The Yellow Jackets picked things up in the second half, but never got closer than 11 points.
Jose Alvarado played all 40 minutes and led Georgia Tech (12-16, 4-11 ACC) with 20 points and seven rebounds. Moses Wright went 9-of-13 for 19 points
Former Hurricanes star Jack McClinton, who played professionally in the NBA and overseas, sat courtside. The 34-year-old can still shoot. He made 10 three-pointers for charity during a time out.
Also, as part of “Celebrating Black Culture,” the Hurricanes honored Will Allen and Kim Sands, the first black athletes to play in the UM basketball program.
Allen joined UM in 1967 and averaged 17.2 points over his three seasons. He still ranks second on the school’s all-time rebounding list. Allen, the son of sharecroppers, is a highly successful urban farmer and in 2008 was awarded the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant for his work on urban farming and sustainable food production.
Sands joined the UM women’s basketball team in 1974 and was also the first black tennis scholarship player. She went on to play pro tennis and coach the Hurricanes tennis team.
The Hurricanes play their next two games on the road – at Wake Forest Tuesday and at No. 1 Duke on Saturday.