The motivation for Miami, according to its head coach, has been and remains excellence.
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Mississippi State: The Bulldogs made 8 of 27 3-point tries for the game…. Point guard Josh Brown runs the show, averaging 4.3 assists, and forward Obi Enechionyia boasts 19 points in the tournament after missing the North Carolina game with an ankle injury.ABOUT THE UTAH (3-1): The Utes turned the ball over 16 times against Miami, leading to 23 points off those miscues for the Hurricanes. “Andrew is multi-dimensional in how he plays”, Holtmann said, “and so is Tyler”.
In its win against Butler, Miami won with offensive efficiency (shooting 51.9 percent from the field).
But Holtmann had cautioned afterward that those two scoring outbursts represented only “a really small sample size”.
UC Riverside (2-1) led throughout much of the first half and Clemence Lefebvre’s three-pointer gave the Highlanders a 35-30 lead early in the third quarter. And if Minnesota goes on to struggle this season – which most of us expect – it would probably be one of the sentences mentioned in context throughout the year. When Rodriguez involved his supporting cast and they responded by making baskets, Miami was at its best last season.
“We did a very good job obviously early in the game”, Owls coach Fran Dunphy said.
Zach Smith amassed eight of his 12 points and grabbed four of his five rebounds in the second half. He looked like he was heading for another quiet night when he managed just a single 3 in the opening half as the Hurricanes ran out to a double-digit lead. Additionally, the Hurricanes also managed 10 second-chance points, in comparison to Utah’s five points. But Dunham suddenly jolted awake after a 5-for-20 effort in Friday’s win against Temple, helping Butler climb back in it only to see the Hurricanes keep answering with key baskets of their own.
Ware, who finished with 15 points and nine rebounds, couldn’t finish the final-sequence stickback through contact on a play that had the Bulldogs bench crying out for a foul. Conversely, the Red Raiders committed 10 turnovers. “They made the right pass most of the time”. Rodriguez spoke often during the summer about deferring more to the players around him, while the soft-spoken McClellan acknowledged his need to emerge as more of a leader.
But Butler got no closer, with Miami hitting enough free throws down the stretch to close it out.
Despite only trailing 36-33 at the half against #16 Utah, Texas Tech fell in their first game of the tournament 73-63.
“Things won’t get easier for Utah coming up, but with that, Poeltl is on the precipice of having a breakout campaign”, Norlander writes while noting that the Utes have contests against BYU, Wichita State and Duke in December.
NO. 22 BUTLER 74, TEMPLE 69: Kellen Dunham scored 16 points to help Butler beat Temple in the second round of the Puerto Rico Tipoff.
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The Blue Devils face Georgetown in the championship game Sunday.
