When your best wins are over bubble teams like Kentucky and Florida State and your conference record is below .500, any hopes for playing in the NCAA Tournament require some big wins. The Hurricanes accomplished that tonight with a second half blow out of Wake Forest, 79-52.This was a complete decimation of Wake Forest in the final 20 minutes. Miami only held a three-point lead at the half, but blew the game open from the start of the second half. The Hurricanes went on a 25-8 run. Jack McClinton had a huge game scoring 32 points, dropping a slew of 3-pointers and getting to the basket.
For Wake Forest, Jeff Teague may have acknowledged that teams are now planning to stop him, but he has yet to show he can adjust to overcome that. Teague went for 19 points, but needed 14 shots to do it, and missed all of his 3-point attempts. Even worse, he was abused defensively by McClinton.
No one else for Wake Forest showed any shooting touch, though. The Demon Deacons shot below 32 percent and failed to play defense. The Hurricanes shot nearly 50 percent.
Wake Forest has now lost three out of their last four games. The Deacons are in a mid-season slump as the conference competition wears on them. Right now they have been playing to the level of their competition.
