Miami stunned at home by Louisville in lackluster performance that has team reeling as it heads to Virginia Tech Saturday

Despite strong outings from Miami Hurricanes forward Matthew Cleveland (22 points and 12 rebounds) and guard Wooga Poplar (18 points), who made his return to the hardwood after missing the last two games, the Miami Hurricanes fell 80-71 to the Louisville Cardinals Wednesday night in a lackluster performance in their first home loss of the season.

Although Louisville entered the contest losers of three straight, the Hurricanes expected a battle Wednesday night and got just that against their ACC foes. After a back-and-forth contest, Miami head coach Jim Larrañaga’s squad went cold when it mattered the most, as it shot 2-for-12 to end the contest and were scoreless in the final 3:28.

“Give Louisville all the credit,” Larrañaga said. “They came in here with a very good game plan, and they executed it perfectly. We told our players what Louisville would be like, and to me, we were awful from start to finish. In the first half, we had 10 turnovers doing all the things we told the guys not to do. They had 17 points off of our 10 turnovers in the first half out of their 37 points. Nothing in our game plan worked, and everything they did worked. It was more in the second half.”

Prior to the game, during the team’s afternoon shootaround, Larrañaga said he felt that his team lacked focus and believed that was on full display throughout the evening. 

“When you see guys missing layups, fumbling the ball around, and not paying attention, at one point I stopped the shootaround and said, ‘This is the dress rehearsal of how we’re going to play tonight, and it’s not good’,” Larrañaga said. “Imagine when you see that at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, and then you see it at 7 o’clock.” 

After splitting a pair of free throws at the line to start the matchup, the Hurricanes’ first field goal of the game came from a Nijel Pack three-pointer from way behind the arc. 

Heading into the first media timeout of the contest, the two sides were tied at eight after five minutes. In his first game back from the sprained ankle he suffered December 29 against North Florida, Poplar knocked down a mid-range jumper out of the timeout for his first bucket of the game. But after that, the Hurricanes struggled through a three minute scoring drought and fell behind 18-10.

“Louisville played hard from start to finish, and we’ve just got to be better,” Pack said. “We’ve got a lot of great players, but tonight wasn’t our night. We’ve just got to stay focused on the task at hand, and we have plenty more games ahead of us.”

Down their largest margin of the first half after a string of empty possessions, Larranaga went to his bench, bringing on AJ Casey and Kyshawn George. Over the next five minutes, both George and Casey provided a spark with Casey grabbing four rebounds and George scoring five points as Miami went on 12-2 run.

After closing the gap, George’s three-pointer tied the game at 20. Miami then retook the lead after a tough basket under the rim by forward Norchad Omier with eight minutes remaining in the half.

Over the closing minutes of the first half, Miami would extend its lead to as high as eight. But sloppy play by the Hurricanes that led to 10 turnovers in the first 20 minutes kept the Cardinals within striking distance. Miami led Louisville 41-37 at halftime. Larranaga was frustrated.

“I told the players at the half that they needed to talk to each other,” Larrañaga said. “We can’t keep playing this way, and we were lucky to be ahead. It wasn’t going to last long, and it didn’t. They came out, and we were no good.” 

Coming out of the half, the Cardinals quickly tied things up at 43, but Miami used a six-point surge to take the lead back.

But with just over 10 minutes remaining, Louisville tied the game after the Hurricanes went scoreless for over three minute, setting up a fight to the finish.

The Cardinals went up by five but then Poplar scored five quick points to tie things up at 66. When Louisville again surged ahead by five, Cleveland scored five straight.

But Miami went cold down the stretch as Louisville ended with a 10-0 run.

“We were just very non-competitive,” Larrañaga said. “When they tried to execute something, they scored. We were basically what I heard another coach say, which was soft, and we were.” 

As a team, the Hurricanes shot 39 percent from the field, 32 percent from three, and committed 13 turnovers. Pacing the team in scoring was Cleveland with 22 and Poplar with 18. The duo were the lone Hurricanes to reach double figures Wednesday night. 

Up next, Miami heads to Blacksburg, Virginia, for a duel against Virginia Tech on Jan. 13 at 7 p.m.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do before Saturday,” Larrañaga said.