Wong, Pack’s scoring and defense help No. 15 Miami Hurricanes remain unbeaten at home
Sometimes Nijel Pack leaves even his Miami Hurricanes’ teammates in awe.
Early in the second half of Miami’s game against Wake Forest on Saturday afternoon, Pack tipped a pass from Andrew Carr thrown back out to the top of the key, chased the ball down and sped down the court to deliver a two-hand slam that left Anthony Walker with his mouth ajar and his hands on his head as he watched from the other end of the floor.
“(Walker)’s reaction was really funny,” Pack said. “I was going to react differently, but I had just dunked like a week ago so I guess it’s something I do now.”
Dunking isn’t the only thing he and the Hurricanes do well.
Forcing turnovers and turning those giveaways into points is the formula that the No. 15 Hurricanes followed on Saturday to secure a high-scoring 96-87 win over the Demon Deacons at the Watsco Center as Miami improved to 15-0 and won its sixth consecutive game.
The Hurricanes (22-5, 13-4 in the ACC), currently projected as a No. 4 seed by ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi, continued to bolster their NCAA Tournament resume as well as stay in contention for the ACC regular season title. With three games remaining, including two at home, Miami hopes to at least land a double-bye into the conference tournament quarterfinals should they secure a top four seed.
Pack finished with a season-high 24 points and Isaiah Wong scored a game-high 27 points to pass Jack McClinton for seventh on Miami’s all-time scoring list.
It was the most points combined for Miami’s guard tandem in a game, and the Hurricanes’ 96 points was their second-largest output this season, and tied the program’s most in regulation against an ACC opponent.
“Miami’s the best offensive team we’ve played all year,” Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes said. “Last year I came in here on New Year’s Day and I called in a couple of ‘so-called experts’ from the media and I told them, ‘Miami is really good.’ And they got all the way to the Elite Eight. They’ve got a really good team and they’ve got a lot of confidence and they could make another deep run in the (NCAA Tournament) again. Heck, they might even win the league.”
Wong scored 13 of those points late in the first half to put together a 13-0 scoring run that put the Hurricanes ahead for good.
But even more impressive than Wong and Pack’s scoring was the job they and reserve Bensley Joseph did defending Deacons guard Tyree Appleby, who entered the game as the conference’s leading scorer.
Appleby finished with 15 points and nine assists, but committed a staggering 12 turnovers - the most by any Division-I player since 2021 and tied for the second-most in a game in the past 13 seasons.
“We had a good game plan for him. We trapped him a lot coming off the ball screen,” Wong said. “He’s a great pick and roll player and we tried our best to trap him and make him turn over the ball and I felt like we did a great job at that end.”
The Hurricanes made 18 of their first 23 attempts from the field and shot 58.7 percent from the field.
Norchad Omier also had a bounce-back performance after being held to only five points on 1-for-7 shooting in Miami’s recent win at North Carolina. Omier hit a three from the top of the key to start the game and scored the Hurricanes’ first nine points. He finished with 17 points and eight rebounds.
Jordan Miller also played a key role in helping Miami close out the win, scoring 12 of his 14 points in the second half and finishing with six rebounds.
“It’s really important for us to involve everybody,” UM coach Jim Larranaga said. “Those are the things that are very important to us that there’s good balance in our offense.”
Six Wake players scored in double figures and the Demon Deacons made 15 of 34 attempts from 3, which kept them in the game until the final two minutes.
“Wake Forest has the ability to score at such a high rate and puts so much pressure on your defense,” Larranaga said. “I thought our guys did a great job and we still gave up 87 points. We were able to create a lot of turnovers that led to scoring opportunities and we shot at a high percentage. It was a great home win for us.”
This story was originally published February 18, 2023 at 5:17 PM.
