The Miami Hurricanes Women put forth plenty of fight at Louisville, but fell short 71-57. The Canes stood toe to toe with the Cardinals for about 80% of the game. When they watch it back, it will be the scoreless drought late in the second quarter that doomed them. It was wild, because they started the quarter on a 9-1 run! Hoops is insane sometimes.

But that was not the only issue. As much as the Cavinder sisters get press, this team cannot win if Destiny Harden is only taking two shots until late in the fourth. She finished 1-4 from the field. It was inexplicable that Coach Meier was not able to draw up anything to get her more involved early. If she and Haley don’t each have 15-20, it’s going to be tough to win meaningful games in March. Speaking of Haley, she hit 2,000 points for her career late in this one. Very impressive accomplishment!

So, where do they stand? At 17-11 (10-7) they are the #7 seed in the ACC. They have Virginia 15-12 (4-12) remaining Sunday at noon at the Watsco. They HAVE to win that game. At the time of this writing, Bracketology has them among the Last Four Byes, meaning if they were to lose to Virginia, they would be knocked down to the ‘play-in round’…or worse, out completely. As it stands, even beating a lowly Cavalier squad, they probably need to win at least one game in the ACC tournament.

This team has lacked something in their chemistry all season. Their backs are now firmly against the wall. Let’s see how they respond.