LAKE BUENA VISTA — Miami males’s basketball coach Jai Lucas admitted following his staff’s 72-62 loss to Brigham Younger at Thursday’s ESPN Occasions Invitational that he had by no means seen fairly a shot-blocking exhibition just like the one BYU’s Keba Keita placed on.
The athletic 6-foot-8 Keita, a local of Bamkako, Mali, swatted seven Miami pictures, 5 blocks coming within the first six minutes of the second half. BYU went on a 10-0 run throughout the stretch, as Miami, because of Keita’s presence, managed to make simply 3-of-12 flooring pictures, and the spurt spelled the distinction within the sport.
BYU’s efforts have been aided by a partisan crowd of Cougars’ followers. There have been 4,276 followers in attendance on the StateFarm Subject Home at ESPN’s Extensive World of Sports activities.
“No. 13 [Keita], I haven’t seen blocked pictures like that,” Lucas mentioned. “He will get seven blocks in a sport, that’s an enormous distinction. That’s a separator. It modified their complete protection when he’s capable of defend the rim and try this.
“I feel, within the first six minutes, they scored 20 factors. There you go. That’s the distinction. The way in which we’re constructed, we gotta play with extra power across the rim.”
It was a profession excessive for Keita and probably the most blocked pictures in a BYU sport because the Cougar’s 7-foot-6 heart Shawn Bradley swatted 12 pictures in opposition to Jap Kentucky in 1990.
The Hurricanes began out nicely, matching BYU’s athletes run-for-run and leaping out to a 33-29 halftime lead. BYU coach Kevin Younger mentioned he observed a scarcity of vitality together with his staff within the first half.
“Our demeanor wasn’t nice within the first half. I assumed our guys have been just a little bit glazed over, actually,” Younger mentioned. “I assumed our demeanor within the second half was the most important adjustment. Coach Lucas has put collectively a very bodily staff and we ended up going plus-6 on the glass within the second half from the primary half. That’s the place we have been hurting.
“After which clearly what Keba did defensively was unbelievable.”
After the Hurricanes shot 42% within the first half, it dropped to 38% for the sport because the Cougars ramped up the defensive effort, in addition to, like Younger mentioned, crashed the boards and loved a 42-39 rebound edge in the long run.
“I assumed we performed good for 20 minutes, and now we gotta work out how we are able to play good for 40,” Lucas mentioned.
BYU was led by Kennard Davis in scoring with 18 factors, and star freshman AJ Dybantsa had 16. Miami was led by Malik Reneau, who scored 14 factors.
Miami (5-2) struggled on the free-throw line, which is an space Lucas mentioned his staff can not afford to battle, given the bodily offensive fashion of play he’s attempting to instill within the Hurricanes. Miami hit certainly one of its first seven free-throw makes an attempt and ended up 7-of-17 for the sport (41%).
“We are going to proceed to work at it and shoot it, however it’s an enormous a part of who we’re, getting fouled,” Lucas mentioned. “We’re a staff that shoots within the higher 20s of free throws, so solely getting 17 free throws tonight sort of reveals you our violence and our physicality wasn’t there. … We gotta be higher on the line.”
BYU (5-1) will face the winner of the Dayton-Georgetown sport in Friday’s ESPN Occasions Invitational Magic Bracket championship at 9:30 p.m.
