Miami aims for strong finish to 3-game road trip at Wake Forest

Photo credit: Alex Carnochan

The Miami Hurricanes scored 66 points on the road against a conference opponent, but didn’t collect a victory in their fourth game played in seven days.

Against Boston College, five Miami student-athletes scored in double-digits. The Hurricanes were close down the stretch, until a surrendered 9-0 run decided the contest in the final minutes.

“66 points on the road in an ACC game, it was our defense that didn’t hold,” Miami head coach Katie Meier said. “Boston College is a very, very talented team, and their starters played extremely well. They got the contribution off the bench from Makayla Dickens that they needed. They played us tough, they played to the scout really well. We lost to a very good team who played very, very well at home, and needed to make the extra pass and they did.”

Four days later, Miami (10-7, 3-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) has a chance to finish its three-game road trip at 2-1 against Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons (12-8, 2-7 ACC) handed the Canes their first home loss of the season by one point earlier this season. Both teams meet again Thursday at 7 p.m. for a rematch in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

“This week was not a failure by any stretch of the imagination. We beat a ranked opponent and we beat a rival on the road,” Meier said. “Now, we have to focus up and go to Wake Forest and grab a game that we felt we left on the table at home when we had that 25-day layoff.”

Veteran guard Kelsey Marshall continues to lead Miami in scoring. The Hurricanes’ all-time leading 3-point scorer is averaging 14 points per game and stands as the team’s only player to hold three 20-point outings on the season. Redshirt senior forward Destiny Harden has produced back-to-back 10-point performances.

Wake Forest guard Jewel Spear, the ACC’s scoring leader at nearly 20 points per game, is coming off a 22-point outing in a road loss against then-No. 3 Louisville Sunday. Wake Forest ranks only 11th in field goal percentage, however.

Given their scoring struggles, the Demon Deacons remain stuck in a five-game skid. Their last victory came in Coral Gables on Jan. 6, following UM’s back-to-back canceled ACC games due to COVID-19 protocol. Wake Forest aims to sweep the season series with the Canes for the first time since 2010.

Miami, 7-3 in its last 10 games versus Wake Forest, seeks its fourth win in its last six conference matchups. Eight of the Hurricanes’ last 17 matchups have been single-digit results.