The Deacs took care of business on the road today with an 88-78 win over the Miami Hurricanes, avoiding what would have been a catastrophic loss to a team that has now lost 12 of their last 13 games. Wake had several chances to push the lead out and win this game in blowout fashion, but it’s hard to complain about a double-digit ACC road win.

On offense, the Deacs pretty much did whatever they wanted in this one. The Canes tried to play small ball for basically the entire game, and Wake was completely dominant inside with a whopping 50 points in the paint. When the Deacs weren’t getting layups down low, it was Cameron Hildreth torching them from distance—Hildreth finished the game with a game high 31 points and made 6 of his 8 3-point attempts. If the Deacs can get that version of Hildreth to show up in their remaining games, they should have no problem competing for the top of the ACC.

On defense, the Deacs struggled a little more. Miami’s small ball lineup diced up Wake’s 1-3-1 zone with what seemed like a million 3-pointers. Whenever the Deacs got the lead up to 13-14 points, Miami would hit a 3 and get it back to 10 points—Wake just never could find the kill shot to put this one out of reach. One reason for that was Wake’s inability to rebound out of the zone, even against Miami’s small ball lineup. The Canes finished the game with 17 offensive rebounds and 16 second chance points, which is definitely something that the Deacs must address as they approach the toughest portion of their schedule.

Down the stretch, Hunter Sallis took the game over for Wake Forest, scoring 15 of his 22 points on 6-7 shooting in the 2nd half. Despite Miami never going away, it really never felt like the outcome of the game was in jeopardy. Even when the Canes were throwing in 3-pointers, there was never a doubt that the Deacs could just get the ball down low and answer immediately—Miami seemingly had no interest in playing any defense in this game. That’s not really surprising, as the Canes have a 300+ ranked defense on KenPom on the season.

The Deacs have two Quad 3 games remaining before a string of nine straight Quad 1 and 2 games that will show us exactly what this team is made of. As long as Wake avoids any mishaps over the next 2 games, they have a chance to play themselves right into an NCAA Tournament spot.

Go Deacs!

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The nightmare season continues as the Miami Hurricanes (4-12, 0-5 ACC) drops its fifth straight game against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons (12-4, 4-1 ACC) 88-78.

The first half was the same as other halves this season. The Hurricanes show promise in the first opening minutes then Lynn Kidd finds himself in early foul trouble. Without Kidd on the floor, the offense and subsequently the defense drastically dips.

The Watsco Center crowd has been loud despite the losses but they still can’t give energy to the team when simple mistakes continue to hold them back. This is highlighted defensively as they don’t have any defense and it continues to get worse game after game.

The Hurricanes allowed 50 paint points in this game as the season trend of atrocious interior defense continues. Not only that, Wake Forest’s Cameron Hildreth was electric for the Demon Deakes all game. He finished the game with 31 points, 11-16 FG, 6-8 3FG, and the Canes just struggled to stick with him during the game. Anytime a player blinked the ball was already through the net.

Miami finished the game shooting, 40 percent from the field, 30 percent from three-point range, and finishing with 14 turnovers. Matthew Cleveland finished the game with 22 points leading the Canes with star Freshman Jalil Bethea and Austin Swartz following with 13 and 12 respectively.

Bill Courtney knows that losing sucks but this won’t change the preparation and the effort the team will give as they have a big task ahead of them.

“Losing sucks,” Courtney said after the loss. It is very difficult these kids are working their tails off and deserve to win. It’s our job as a coaching staff and their jobs as players to figure out a way. We were right there tonight. We couldn’t get a stop but keep encouraging us. Give credit to Wake Forest.”

The Hurricanes now have the projected No. 1 overall NBA Draft pick in the Duke led Cooper Flagg to worry about who is also coming off a career game. There are still 15 games to go this season, but the countdown begins for the new era of the Miami Hurricanes.

READ MORE FROM MIAMI HURRICANES ON SI:

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