GREENSBORO, N.C. — No. 14 Miami lost starting forward Norchad Omier to an ankle injury early in the team’s 85-78 defeat to No. 21 Duke in their Atlantic Coast Conference tournament semifinal matchup on Friday.
Omier was hurt 66 seconds into the game when he rebounded a missed free throw. He landed on the foot of Duke’s Dereck Lively II and rolled his right ankle, sending him falling to the court and banging his hands on the hardwood in pain.
Omier was helped to the bench, then needed help just to get on his feet before being assisted to the tunnel that leads to the locker room.
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Minutes later, Miami announced that Omier would miss the rest of the game. The school later tweeted that Omier had no broken bones.
The 6-foot-7 third-year sophomore came in averaging 14 points and a team-high 9.8 rebounds. He was an All-ACC second-team pick by The Associated Press earlier this week.
Duke won its eighth straight game and earned its 17th trip to the title game in the past 25 tournaments.
“Regardless of Norchad playing or not playing, we all got recruited here, we’re all good enough players,” Miami guard Jordan Miller said. “So with that, there’s no excuse. We’ve just got to find a way.”
The Hurricanes, who shared the ACC regular-season title with No. 13 Virginia, had lost just once since late January, falling at home to Florida State after blowing a 25-point lead on Feb. 25. The Hurricanes arrived in Greensboro as the tournament’s No. 1 seed for only the second time in program history, the other coming a decade earlier when Miami completed a three-day run to the program’s lone ACC tournament championship.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
