news-record.com

CORAL GABLES -- The Miami students stormed the BankUnited Center court after Wednesday night's 79-52 upset of No. 7 Wake Forest, leaving the Deacons to walk quietly toward a 15-minute locker room meeting with Coach Dino Gaudio.

"I was angry, mad, use whatever word you like, particularly about our defense," Gaudio said. "If we don't score a basket, we have to be able to lock down and guard on the other end, and we didn't do it. We're in the game 29-26 at halftime and let them score 50 points."

The No. 6 Deacons (17-3, 4-3) have now lost three of their last four games. The Hurricanes (15-7, 4-5) ended a three-game losing streak.

"It was the worst that we have played," said guard Jeff Teague, whose 19 points led the Deacons. "I just turned and walked away at the end. Jack (McClinton) hit some big shots. We didn't have an answer for their zone."

The Deacons shot 31.7 percent (19 of 60) from the field, their worst of the season, and it led to their lowest point total of the season.

The two 26-point halves led to the biggest margin of defeat since Wake lost, 112-39, at Boston College on Jan. 12, 2008.

Wake Forest didn't take advantage of Miami's slow start, shooting a season-low 33.3 percent (12 of 36) but ended up trailing only 29-26 at the half.

"We missed a great chance," Gaudio said. "We could have easily gone out 10-2 or 11-4 right away. If we had, it would have been a different game."

McClinton led Miami with 32 points, and Adrian Thomas followed with 14 as the Hurricanes shot 49 percent (26 of 53) overall and 45.8 percent (11 of 24) on 3-pointers.

"McClinton does as good of a job of creating space as I have seen," Gaudio said.

Gaudio, who indicated his team played well against zones early in the season, said they didn't react well at Miami.

"We tried to shoot our way out of trouble," Gaudio said, "and that's not a good answer."

Al-Farouq Aminu wasn't a factor with the inside game abandoned. He thought the Deacons should have attacked and been more aggressive against the zone.

"We just had a bad shooting night," Aminu said. "We were on such a high. It is never easy to lose to a team that you should beat."

The Hurricanes opened the second half with a 26-8 run that led to a 54-34 lead on a Thomas 3-pointer with 10:50 left, and the hole was simply too deep for the Deacons. The lead reached 27 in the final minutes.

It left Wake Forest to finish the game with chants over "over-rated," ringing in its ears from the Miami crowd.

Gaudio started David Weaver over Chas McFarland at center. It was the first change in the starting lineup in 19 games. Gaudio said he wasn't happy with how "engaged" McFarland became with the officiating in the 76-74 loss to Georgia Tech.

Perhaps, the loss to Miami was just hangover from Georgia Tech, but it appeared to be more a problem with the zone and no consistency on defense.

"We rebounded (39-37 advantage) and played defense," Miami coach Frank Haith said. "Those two things were the difference. In the second half, we hit shots late in the clock and took care of the ball. We had 10 turnovers in the first half and only four in the second half."

With 2:30 remaining in the first half, L.D. Williams, who played McClinton man-to-man, received no warning from a teammate and ran into a Cyrus McGowan screen near half-court, knocking him off his feet.

It was indicative of the Deacons all night as they repeatedly tried to gain their feet and couldn't.

"We have two choices after an embarrassing loss like this one," Aminu said. "We can bounce back, or we can keep going down. Coach was pretty upset at us, and we are pretty upset at ourselves."

WAKE FOREST (17-3, 4-3)

FG FT Reb

Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS

Aminu 28 2-6 0-1 1-4 1 1 4

Johnson 30 4-12 1-1 3-7 1 5 11

Weaver 13 0-1 0-0 0-3 1 2 0

Teague 32 6-14 7-8 1-1 1 2 19

Williams 22 2-6 0-2 1-2 0 2 5

Clark 6 1-3 0-0 0-1 0 1 2

Hale 13 0-6 2-2 1-3 0 0 2

Smith 27 2-6 0-0 0-3 3 0 4

McFarland 17 2-5 1-2 3-4 0 3 5

Lepore 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Walker 4 0-1 0-2 1-1 0 0 0

Woods 8 0-0 0-0 1-1 0 3 0

Totals 200 19-60 11-18 15-37 7 19 52

Percentages: FG .317, FT .611.

3-point goals: 3-20, .150 (Johnson 2-4, Williams 1-2, Smith 0-1, Aminu 0-1, Clark 0-2, Teague 0-5, Hale 0-5).

Team rebounds: 7.

Blocked shots: 5 (Johnson 2, Teague 2, Aminu).

Turnovers: 14 (Aminu 5, Smith 3, Hale 2, Johnson 2, Teague, McFarland).

Steals: 9 (Teague 3, Hale 2, Johnson, Aminu, Weaver, Smith).

MIAMI (15-7, 4-5)

FG FT Reb

Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS

McGowan 23 2-5 4-4 1-5 1 2 8

Collins 14 1-3 0-0 1-2 2 3 2

Asbury 23 0-4 1-2 0-2 2 2 1

Hurdle 29 2-9 6-8 1-4 4 2 11

McClinton 33 11-19 4-5 0-3 2 1 32

Graham 24 3-3 0-1 1-11 1 0 6

Dews 20 1-3 0-0 0-1 1 3 2

Quigtar 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Thomas 19 5-6 0-0 1-3 2 1 14

Jones 15 1-1 1-2 0-2 0 1 3

Totals 200 26-53 16-22 9-39 15 15 79

Percentages: FG .491, FT .727.

3-point goals: 11-24, .458 (McClinton 6-10, Thomas 4-5, Hurdle 1-3, Dews 0-1, McGowan 0-2, Asbury 0-3).

Team rebounds: 6.

Blocked shots: 9 (Graham 4, Jones, McGowan, Dews, Asbury, Thomas).

Turnovers: 14 (McClinton 3, Thomas 3, McGowan 2, Hurdle 2, Asbury, Jones, Collins, Dews).

Steals: 10 (McClinton 3, Jones 2, McGowan, Collins, Asbury, Hurdle, Graham).

Wake Forest 26 26 -- 52

Miami 29 50 -- 79

A--5,792. Officials--Bryan Kersey, Bernard Clinton, Tony Greene.