Takeaways from Miami’s 104-79 win over UL Monroe

After scoring the game’s first basket, Miami maintained its lead for the remainder of its 104-79 home win over UL Monroe Saturday. The most pressing piece of news for Miami leaving Saturday’s game, however, has nothing to do with the game itself.

With 1:29 left in the first half, freshman forward Shelton Henderson fell to the court in pain after suffering what appeared to be a lower body injury. He was helped off the floor by trainers, unable to put any weight on his left foot.

Fortunately for Henderson and the Hurricanes, he seemed to avoid a major injury. Henderson did not return to the game, but he was able to warm up ahead of the second half. Head coach Jai Lucas said they’ll know more about the injury that Henderson is dealing with in the coming days.

“We’re still kind of evaluating and seeing what it is,” Lucas said. “He tried to kind of go out there and start the second half, run around a little bit, so we’ll see.

Henderson was effective in his one half of action, scoring nine points on a 4-of-5 clip from the field. 

The Hurricanes will continue their homestand with a game against cross-county rival FIU on Wednesday. Here are three takeaways from Miami’s win over UL Monroe.

Domination in the paint

Miami set a season high in points, as well as paint points, against the Warhawks.

Leading scorer Malik Reneau led the way with 22 points, most of which were near the basket. Center Ernest Udeh also scored a season-high 14 points to pair with his 15 rebounds, taking advantage of an undersized UL Monroe frontcourt.

“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, we definitely got to stick to what we do. And going into tonight’s game, there was an emphasis on attacking the paint,” Udeh said. “They’re one of the teams in the country who doesn’t really foul, and making sure we try to get to the line, being aggressive, use that to our advantage. That was an emphasis going into the game.”

For the game, Miami scored 62 paint points.

Lucas displeased with defensive showing

The defensive-minded Lucas aims for his team to limit opponents to less than 70 points every game. Miami fell short of that objective against UL Monroe, allowing 79 points and 15 made threes.

He described the Hurricanes’ defense as “nonexistent” and was not at all satisfied with his team’s performance on that end of the floor.

“We were stuck in mud. Our rotations were slow. We struggled guarding the ball and keeping people in front. And whenever you struggle to guard the ball and keep people in front, the ball gets in the paint. And then once the ball is in the paint, anything can happen,” Lucas said.

Following the game, Miami’s defensive ranking on KenPom dropped from No. 15 to No. 25.

Looking ahead to FIU

The Panthers enter their matchup with Miami riding a three-game win streak and look to have a team that could potentially compete in the Conference USA this season.

FIU is commanded by senior guard Corey Stephenson, who leads his squad with 17.5 points and 8.0 rebounds per game. The Panthers are ranked by KenPom as the 181st-best team in the nation.

“I expect a war. They’re really good. [FIU head coach Jeremy] Ballard’s done a good job this year with his team construction,” Lucas said. “They play with confidence. They play free. They’re aggressive. They’re big. They got really good guards.”

Miami survived a near-upset the last time it faced the Panthers in 2023, narrowly winning 86-80.