No. 17 Miami aims to overpower North Alabama in the paint

No. 17 Miami still is a work in progress heading into Friday night's game against North Alabama Lions in Coral Gables, Fla.

The Hurricanes (2-1) have rebounded with two straight wins following a season-opening loss to No. 1 Florida.

Malik Reneau, an All-ACC choice after averaging 18.9 points last season, scored a total of 17 points in the first two games before racking up 16 on 7-of-10 shooting in just 18 minutes on Monday.

"Malik finally looked like himself," Hurricanes coach Jai Lucas said after the 89-51 rout of North Florida.

Reneau is one of three Miami returners and Lucas said his squad still is adjusting to new roles and new teammates. Lucas called the win over North Florida a "step forward" but added that "our spacing was bad."

Poor spacing has led to awful 3-point shooting -- 22.2% for the season, which ranked No. 352 nationally through Wednesday's games.

What the Hurricanes do well is attack the rim and rebound. They have impressive size with a starting unit that features point guard Acaden Lewis and four burly dudes: Shelton Henderson (6-6, 240), Caleb Gaskins (6-8, 220), Reneau (6-9, 247) and Somto Cyril (6-11, 263).

"We have Shelton playing the two," Cyril said. "That's all you need to know. ... We just have to impose our will in the paint."

Meanwhile, North Alabama (2-1) is a scrappy team as it showed in an 81-72 loss at Oklahoma on Monday. The Lions led that game 38-37 in the first minute of the second half before the Sooners took over.

The Lions outscored the Sooners 36-22 in the paint and also posted a 36-23 advantage in bench points and a 35-33 edge in rebounds.

Mike Evbagharu scored a game-high 27 points against Oklahoma. He made 10 of 11 shots, including two 3-pointers, and added a game-high eight rebounds.

Evbagharu, a native of Canada, is playing at his fourth college in four years, with previous stops at Siena, Central Arkansas and Canisius. He started a total of 54 games at those three schools and gives the Lions much-needed experience.

For the season, Evbagharu leads North Alabama in scoring (19.0) and rebounds (7.0). Quan Lax is the only other double-figure scorer (11.0) and leads the team in steals (2.7).

The Lions, who finished 9-21 last season, are first-year members of the United Athletic Conference (formerly the Western Athletic Conference). They played in the Atlantic Sun from 2018-26 and have never been to the Division I NCAA Tournament.

Friday's game marks a homecoming for North Alabama coach Tony Pujol, who is from Miami. Pujol was a highly successful prep coach in Miami, leading Northwest Christian to a 250-46 record in nine years, including state titles in 1999, 2003 and 2004.

"Coming back to Miami is always special to me because it's home," Pujol said. "I have tremendous respect for the University of Miami."

North Alabama has never faced Miami, but the Lions are 0-4 against ACC teams.

--Field Level Media