By Kenneth Cross
Miami guard Isaiah Wong scored a career-high 36 points as the Hurricanes shot 55 percent, but Cornell scored 16 points off of 29 turnovers as Miami took a 107-105 victory over the Big Red on Wednesday evening.
The Big Red shot 52 percent from the floor as they have turned into one of the fastest teams in the nation in spending an average of 14.7 seconds on offensive possessions which is eighth in the nation.
“Their back door cutting, how fast they played, how they pressed full court and trapped and they did a lot of things defensively that can bother you,” explained Miami head coach Jim Larrañaga. “In the first half, we kind of outscored them but our defense was never able to stop them.
Miami later led 91-78 with 8:37 left in the game as Wong and Norchad
Omir combined for 13 points as the duo led the Hurricanes into a 100-88 advantage with 5:22 to play.
“In the first half, we kind of outscored them,” noted Larrañaga. “I think we had 66 points at halftime.but our defense was never able to stop them. We cooled off and they kept going.”
Cornell kept going in the last five minutes of the game as Chris Manon scored four of his 18 points as the Big Red once again pulled the game to within one possession when Guy Ragland, Jr. scored on a layup with eight seconds remaining to knife the score to 107-104.
“We were very very fortunate to win the game,” Larrañaga noted. “They were at the foul line. We thought we had to foul them. If we gave them a chance to make a three, they easily could have done that and put the game into overtime. We’re kind of very fortunate to escape with a two-point victory.”
Miami trailed Cornell 18-13 with 14:35 remaining in the first half, but Wong scored 11 points in a 16-4 Miami run that saw the Hurricanes take a 29-22 lead with 11:02 remaining in the first half.
As Wong led Miami with 36, Jordan Miller checked in with 22 points while Omire scored 17points and pulled down 12 boards while Bensley Joseph nailed four three-point shots and finished with 12.
“We have three guards that really can play together or are ultimate,” analyzed Larrañaga. “Nigel Pack, Isaiah Wong, and Vincent Joseph – we try to use those guys collectively and they come in and rest for each other.”
Greg Dolan was 8-of-11 from the floor and led Cornell with 19 points. He also tallied six of the Big Red’s 27 assists.
“This really wasn’t so much about our offense, but it was really about the style of play because Cornell plays so fast and there were a lot of open court situations, we got a chance to score before their defense got back,” noted Larrañaga.
Cornell outscored Miami, 56-40 in the paint, while the Hurricanes were 13-of-26 from three as Wong made 5-of-8 triples.
“We wanted to play at that tempo because we could score the ball in the open court,” commented Larraañaga. “We are not used to defending a team that can score that well in the open court because they shoot so many threes and they are relentless at straight line driving.”