Hurricanes Down Tigers, 62-38

Jan. 18, 2006

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) – Guillermo Diaz scored 12 points and Miami beat Clemson 62-38 for its fourth straight win Wednesday.

The winning streak is the longest of the season for Miami (11-6, 3-1), which has won five of its past six games. The Hurricanes have also won three consecutive ACC games after opening conference play with an 81-69 loss at North Carolina State.

The loss was the fifth in the past seven games for Clemson (13-5, 2-3), which shot a season-low 25.4 percent from the field. The 38 points also represented a season low for the Tigers, who have lost four consecutive games to the Hurricanes.

Miami came out sluggish early, and fell behind 12-1 after missing its first seven field goal attempts. But Robert Hite’s layup with 12:55 remaining in the first half sparked a 16-5 Miami run.

The Hurricanes tied the game at 17-17 on a Hite dunk at 7:25. Miami took its first lead of the game, 21-19, on a runner by Anthony Harris at 3:25, and went into halftime up 27-21. They never looked back after that, scoring 10 of the first 12 points in the second half to build a commanding 37-23 lead. The lead swelled to 26 points when Anthony King converted a pair of free throws to put Miami up 57-31 with 5:32 left to play.

K.C. Rivers scored eight points and Akin Akingbala added seven points and a game-high nine rebounds for Clemson, which has shot below 41 percent from the field in five of its past six games. The Tigers had 18 turnovers and just seven assists.