Norchad Omier scores season-high 33, leads UM to 73-61 road win over Notre Dame
Norchad Omier returned from injury Wednesday night with a vengeance, scoring 33 points, his most in a Miami Hurricanes uniform, and hauling in 10 rebounds to lead UM to a 73-61 road win against Notre Dame.
It was his ninth double-double of the season, the 60th of his career, and he became the first Miami player to score 30 points with 10 rebounds in an ACC game. He scored 20 points in the first half on 8-of-10 shooting, had three dunks in a row, two three-pointers and shot 12-of-14 for the night.
Omier is the first Hurricane to score 30-plus points in a game since Isaiah Wong tallied 36 on Dec. 7, 2022 against Cornell and the first Miami player to have a 30-point outing on the road since Sheldon McClellan had 31 at Charlotte on Nov. 25, 2014.
The Nicaraguan power forward missed the previous game against Syracuse with a sprained ankle and his status for this week was day to day.
“[Norchad] is just a warrior,” Coach Jim Larrañaga said. “He probably wanted to play on Saturday, but he just couldn’t run. The ankle was too weak. I didn’t know if we’d have him this week or not. You saw tonight that he is an incredible rebounder. He made a couple of threes and some free throws, but he is a beast around the basket. He’s really good.”
Three other Hurricanes – freshman Kyshawn George (11), fourth-year junior Nijel Pack (10) and junior Bensley Joseph (10) – all joined Omier in double-digits. Matt Cleveland left the game in the first half with an apparent hip injury.
A 17-2 Miami run extended the Hurricanes’ lead to nine with 3:42 to play and George sealed the victory with nine points in the final five minutes of the game.
“I thought we played a very solid and very complete first half and then let them not only get back but take control of the game,” head coach Jim Larrañaga said. “But, fortunately, we were able to pull it out and I really appreciate how hard we worked to get back into the game.”
The Hurricanes (13-6, 4-4 ACC) return to the Watsco Center for a 2:15 p.m. home game against Pitt. Notre Dame fell to 7-12, 2-6 ACC. The Irish were led by Markus Burton with 15 points and four assists.
