Durham, NC (SportsNetwork.com) - When Duke heads to Louisville for Saturday's marquee matchup with Louisville, it'll do so having dropped back-to-back ACC games for the first time in six years.
Manu Lecomte scored 18 of his 23 points in the second half, leading a torrid shooting display from Miami-Florida after the break that propelled the Hurricanes to a stunning 90-74 upset of the fourth-ranked Blue Devils.
Miami (12-4, 2-1 ACC) halted the nation's longest home win streak in emphatic fashion, putting up 56 second-half points on an 18-of-27 effort from the field that included six makes in nine attempts from 3-point range.
Lecomte and Angel Rodriguez were the catalysts of the onslaught, with the latter tallying 15 of his 24 points over the final 20 minutes. The duo combined to go 7-of-10 on 3-pointers for the game.
"We felt like it was a great matchup and they were going to allow us what we wanted to do," said Rodriguez. "Our bigs did a great job of setting tons of ball screens and our guards did a great job of using them and making good decisions. It was a great team effort."
Duke (14-2, 2-2) had prevailed in 41 straight tests at Cameron Indoor Stadium since an 88-70 loss to North Carolina on March 3, 2012. However, the shooting woes that plagued the Blue Devils in Sunday's 87-75 defeat at NC State came back to haunt them again on Tuesday, resulting in the program's first losing skid in conference play since Feb. 11-15, 2009.
"Well they were terrific. I thought [Angel] Rodriguez was sensational. He not only scored, but he controlled the game," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "It's one of the best performances I've seen in Cameron from an opposing player. Their whole team played well, but he really set the tone in how well he played."
After shooting a season-low 36.9 percent from the floor against the Wolfpack, Duke made just 6-of-21 tries from beyond the arc to go along with a woeful 10- of-20 performance from the foul line.
It'll now take those struggles into a road showdown against one of the top defensive teams in the country in No. 6 Louisville.
Quinn Cook did finish with 18 points in the loss, with Jahlil Okafor compiling 15 with 15 rebounds for the Blue Devils and Amile Jefferson posting 14 points and 12 boards.
The Hurricanes trailed 39-36 early in the second half before going on a 9-0 run sparked by Lecomte, who buried a go-ahead 3-pointer and converted a fastbreak layup off a Duke turnover shortly afterward to stake Miami to a six- point lead.
Duke countered with a 7-2 spurt to pull within one, but the Hurricanes scored the next 10 points and the young Blue Devils unraveled thereafter.
Rodriguez began that spurt with a triple and Lecomte finished it with another, putting Miami up by double digits at 57-46 with 11:44 to play.
The Blue Devils could never get the deficit under seven points the rest of the way, as they continued to miss shots and struggle to take care of the ball while preventing Miami from scoring at will.
Back-to-back treys from Rodriguez and Omar Sherman extended the lead to 69-54 with seven minutes remaining, and the Hurricanes put the game completely out of reach in the final stages. Seven straight points, culminating with Sheldon McClellan's run-out slam off another Duke giveaway, had the Blue Devils down 88-68 entering the last minute.
Duke was far more competitive in a tightly contested first half that contained five lead changes and eight ties with neither team ahead by more than four points.
Miami owned a 14-10 edge after Ja'Quan Newton drove the lane uncontested and threw down a thunderous dunk just over 6 1/2 minutes in. The Blue Devils then countered with a 12-4 stretch to go up 22-18 with nine minutes left in the period.
The Hurricanes regained a four-point advantage following Lecomte's trey 3:24 prior to intermission. However, Cook fed Jefferson for a layup and Rasheed Sulaimon buried a corner 3-pointer to send Duke into the break with a 35-34 lead.
Game Notes
Duke ended with 15 turnovers that the Hurricanes converted into 21 points ... The Blue Devils entered the game 26-2 following a loss since the 2009-10 campaign ... An unranked Miami team also defeated the Blue Devils in Cameron in 2012, coming through with a 78-74 victory in overtime ... Duke's last home loss off a road defeat occurred against Florida State on Feb. 4, 2007 ... McClellan had 14 points and Tonye Jekiri recorded 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Hurricanes.
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