Hurricanes routed in first-place showdown with Tar Heels

The Miami Hurricanes made it a game the first five minutes of regulation, going toe-to-toe with North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

The Tar Heels racked up 12 hits on Saturday-including this RBI single by freshman catcher Cody Roberts-but couldn’t quite hold off UCLA in a frantic finish.

Earlier in the second half, Johnson and Paige trapped Miami guard Ja’Quan Newton, forcing him to backpedal toward midcourt. The five-goal margin of defeat was the worst for the Tar Heels in a home game since they lost to Virginia 15-10 at Fetzer Field on April 7, 2012.

When Roy Williams returned to the Smith Center on Thursday afternoon, less than 24 hours after his fifth-ranked Tar Heels had coughed up an eight-point lead in a 74-73 loss to No. 20 Duke, he walked around the facility, looking for signs of life from his team.

These two are meeting for the first time this season, but series trends support Miami.

After winning the Puerto Rico Tip-Off last November, taking out Mississippi State, Utah and Butler and getting ranked in the process, Miami fell at home against lowly Northeastern.

A get-back-on-the-horse opportunity presented itself days later, with the Canes traveling to Clemson to take on a hot Tigers team-yet another sub-par showing had Miami falling by double-digits and absorbing back-to-back losses for the first time on the year. UNC did that today and last Sunday resulting in huge wins.

Preceding the season, many analysts were picking North Carolina to be the best team in the country.

It turned into a dud, thanks to the Tar Heels turning in the kind of dominating performance they haven’t shown consistently this season – the kind that reminded people why they were picked as the nation’s top-ranked team in the preseason.

“This one had a little more oomph to it because we did lose to Duke and it hurt a lot”, said senior Brice Johnson, who had 16 points and 15 rebounds.

North Carolina (21-5, 5th) was on a roll until they ran into the resurgent Duke Blue Devils a few nights ago. That left Krzyzewski with seven players whom he trusted to handle business during games.

Now Johnson did not play great in the second half, but there is not much reason why the team could not have tried to work the ball in more to Hicks or Kennedy Meeks. A quick look at the box score shows a lot of missed jumpers in the latter portion of the first half. Bang. Money. Alas, it left his hands after the clock expired, so the bucket didn’t count but still – it was a good shot.

In short; another game where an opponent played lights out and up to potential, while Miami regressed-unraveling on the main stage, while showing that as a team the Canes’ struggles continue away from the comfortable confines of The BUC. Offensive troubles caught up as they dropped two games on the road (at Louisville, at Notre Dame).

Meanwhile, down in Coral Gables, the Hurricanes of the University of Miami are exceeding expectations.

The Hurricanes (21-4 overall) forged a tie for first Wednesday night, when they beat Virginia Tech and North Carolina lost to Duke. Miami’s defensive efficiency was 94.4 entering the game and 20th nationally.

There is certainly time left to turn things up a notch.

A bad day for the Hurricanes got exponentially worse. Brian Balkam made 10 saves for the Tar Heels while Jack Concannon had an outstanding game in goal for the Pride as he made 11 saves and allowed only five goals in recording the victory.