Brown leads Miami past La Salle 71-58

Dec 22, 2013, 05:44 pm

CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Rion Brown scored 17 points to lead Miami to a 71-58 victory over LaSalle on Sunday.

Garrius Adams finished with 13 points and Brown and Donnavan Kirk had nine rebounds each for the Hurricanes (7-5).

The Hurricanes took the lead and never looked back after scoring ten unanswered points during a 3:48 stretch early in the first half. Kirk's dunk with 12:33 remaining capped the surge and put the Hurricanes ahead, 17-12.

Davon Reed's 3-pointer with 9:49 remaining in the half gave the Hurricanes their first double-digit advantage at 25-15. Miami led at halftime, 34-24, after a Sam Mills' layup with 1:10 remaining cut a 12-point deficit for LaSalle to just 10.

The Hurricanes expanded their halftime advantage to 51-36 on Adams' layup with 8:41 remaining in the second half.

Tyreek Duren's 3-pointer with 2:11 left got the Explorers to within 61-54, but Brown's 1-of 2 free throws with 2:02 left and Manu Lecomte's layup with 1:39 remaining gave Miami another double-digit advantage at 64-54.

La Salle built an early 12-7 lead keyed by two Duren 3-pointers. But after its early advantage, LaSalle shot only 4-of-18 from the field the remainder of the first half.

Dureen scored a game-high 18 points for the Explorers (6-6). Mills finished with 15 points and Steve Zack had his seventh double-double of the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Duren moved into 22nd on La Salle's all-time scoring list with 1,414 points.