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McClinton, Miami crush sluggish Wake Forest

Feb 5, 2009 - 3:58 AM CORAL GABLES, Florida (Ticker) -- Miami made Wake Forest look like anything but the team that was ranked No. 1 two weeks ago.

Jack McClinton scored a season-high 32 points and Miami stifled sixth-ranked Wake Forest's high-octane offense as the Hurricanes rolled to a 79-52 victory on Wednesday.

Adrian Thomas added 14 points for Miami (15-7, 4-5 ACC), which snapped a three-game losing streak and recorded its highest margin of victory over a top-10 team in school history.

"Obviously it was a great win for us," Hurricanes coach Frank Haith said. "I thought our guys played extremely hard. We rebounded the ball and played defense, and those were the two things that were the difference in the game in terms of how we played."

Using a zone defense, the Hurricanes forced 14 turnovers and held the Demon Deacons 30 points under their season average. Wake Forest, which was coming off a buzzer-beater defeat at Georgia Tech on Saturday, shot 32 percent (19-of-60) from the field, including 3-of-20 from the arc.

"We were relying way too much on the three-point shot," Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio said. "I think it was a little bit 'fool's gold.' I think we hit our first two threes, and we weren't going inside enough after that.

"I told our kids if we never score a point tonight, then we should be able to guard on the other end. I think we lacked a little bit of discipline on defense, and we let our offense affect our defense. That should never happen."

The Demon Deacons (17-3, 4-3) only trailed by three at the break but were never in it during the second half. The Hurricanes blew the game open with a 17-3 run, taking a 54-34 bulge with 10:55 remaining.

Wake Forest never made a serious threat to Miami's lead thereafter, and McClinton converted a three-point play before following it with a 3-pointer, giving the Hurricanes their largest lead at that point, 68-44, with 5:06 remaining.

Jeff Teague scored 19 points to lead the Demon Deacons, whose previous low this season was 70 points.

"We did a nice job in knowing where Teague was and knowing where (James) Johnson was," Haith said. "Those things are key and I thought our guys executed very well."

Both teams struggled from the field early on and neither side led by more than three before the break.

Jimmy Graham's layup put Miami up, 27-26, with 1:16 left in the first half and DeQuan Jones went end-to-end for a driving dunk to give the Hurricanes a three-point edge at the intermission.

McClinton made a pair of 3-pointers early in the second half as the Hurricanes took a 37-28 lead with 17:18 remaining.

"Jack was outstanding in terms of scoring the ball," Haith said. "I thought our defense was terrific. We had that one hiccup early in the game getting back in transition where we didn't hustle. From that point on I thought our guys gave the kind of effort you need to give to be successful in this league."

The 6-1 senior, McClinton shot 11-of-19 from the floor, including 6-of-10 from the arc. He had 22 of his points in the second half.