Izundu’s double-double leads Miami past FAU 75-55
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — Ebuka Izundu had one double-double in his first three seasons.
He has two in four days.
Izundu scored 19 points and grabbed 13 rebounds and the Miami Hurricanes rolled to a 75-55 win over Florida Atlantic on Saturday.
"He's just a terrific young man and he's playing really well," Miami head coach Jim Larranaga said. "He's playing with a lot of confidence."
Izundu had 15 points and 11 rebounds in Wednesday's win over Houston Baptist and has helped the Hurricanes (7-4) win consecutive games for the first time since winning five straight to begin the season.
"There's a lot of teams that have had really good weeks and players, but he's got to be in consideration for ACC Player of the Week this week with the way he's played in two wins," Larranaga said. "Hopefully he gets that recognition. He deserves it."
Anthony Lawrence scored 17 points with eight rebounds and eight assists, Chris Lykes had 12 points and seven assists, and Dejan Vasiljevic chipped in nine points for the Hurricanes.
"We've been practicing on offense moving the ball faster, getting into it faster, trying to find an easier way to score, and for everybody to get into the offense," Lawrence said.
Miami shot 51 percent (29 of 57) from the floor with 21 assists while holding FAU to 33 percent (20 of 60).
The Hurricanes jumped out to a 19-5 lead to begin the game and used a 14-2 run to extend the lead to 35-11.
"I thought we played the best first half of basketball that we've played this season at both ends of the court," Larranaga said. "We defended, we rebounded, and on offense we just shared the ball, had a lot of good shots, found the open man extremely well."
Miami's lead was 46-23 at halftime. The lead grew to 32 midway through the second half.
"We came out there aggressive in the second half," Lawrence said.
FAU (8-4) was led by Anthony Adger's 19 points. The Owls have lost two of three.
"I wish we could have gotten off to a better start and given our young guys some confidence to hang around and maybe see what could happen, but I thought Miami played very physical, aggressively, and some of their role players did a good job of changing shots at the rim and then obviously their shooters made shots," FAU head coach Dusty May said. "They did what they were supposed to do. They out-toughed us, they out-physicaled us, and we couldn't get deep in their bench. They stayed out of foul trouble. Hats off to them. I thought they played hard."
BIG PICTURE
FAU: The Owls have posted their two lowest field-goal percentages of the season in the last three games as they shot 29 percent (23 of 80) in a 75-71 loss at Arkansas State.
Miami: Redshirt freshman guard Anthony Mack scored a season-high eight points with two 3-pointers off the bench and has chipped in 14 points in the last two games providing much-needed depth as Miami continues to play with just seven scholarship players.
UP NEXT
FAU: The Owls plays at Illinois on Dec. 29 in their final nonconference game.
Miami: The Hurricanes host Campbell on Dec. 29 to wrap up nonconference play.
