Hurricanes struggle in Virginia

Coming off a tough home loss to No. 18 Boston College, Miami looked like it still had that game on its minds as the Hurricanes dropped an important game at Virginia 71-51 on Tuesday.

The Hurricanes were stone cold shooting the ball, going just 19-for-60 from the field. Leading scorers Guillermo Diaz and Robert Hite could never get it going, combining to shoot just 5-for-27 from the field.

Miami got off to a great start, taking an early 17-10 lead after converting on six of its first 12 shots from the field, including Anthony Harris hitting his first three shots. The Hurricanes struggled mightily from that point on, as the offense couldn’t get anything going.

Harris led the Hurricanes with 13 points, while Diaz and Hite each scored 10. Although the final score shows Miami lost by 20, it was much closer than that throughout.

Trailing 32-26 at halftime, Hite nailed a tough three-pointer to open the second half, cutting the lead in half. But that would be as close as Miami would get the rest of the way.

Every time the Hurricanes made any sort of run, Virginia’s Sean Singletary would answer, putting up a game high 29 points. Miami’s zone defense, which had been first in the ACC in points allowed per game, looked soft.

Coach Frank Haith told the Miami Herald that he wasn’t the least pleased with the performance.

“We can’t come out here and play like we played tonight. That’s embarrassing. Disappointing,” Haith said. “And we’re going to change that. We may not win another game, but we won’t have that kind of effort again.”

Miami returns to the court on Sunday with another ACC road test, this time at Florida State, who picked up a big road win at Wake Forest on Tuesday night. The game will be shown locally on UPN.

Douglas C. Kroll can be contacted at d.kroll@umiami.edu.