Miami pursues fast start in encounter vs. UL Monroe

Miami will continue to tune up for its Atlantic Coast Conference slate when it hosts Louisiana Monroe on Saturday afternoon.

Riding a three-game win streak, the Hurricanes (8-2) will look to continue their good play after receiving four votes in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll.

Prior to recording a 75-66 win over Ole Miss on the road, Miami was 38th in the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings. The Hurricanes slot 26th in the current NET.

Miami first-year coach Jai Lucas expressed disappointment over his team's slow start in its 88-64 win over Southern Miss last Saturday.

"I thought the start of the game, they just played a lot harder than we did," Lucas said. "Man, this is all part of growing up, all part of a process. First noon game, first Saturday game. ... I wanted to see where would be, and we weren't there. We weren't to the level."

Malik Reneau led with 21 points and made half of his dozen field-goal attempts as Miami had five players register double-figure point outputs.

Reneau averages a team-best 20.2 points per game, followed by Tre Donaldson (14.9), Tru Washington (14.1) and Shelton Henderson (11.9).

UL Monroe (3-7) will look to strike early against Miami as it attempts to win for the third time in four games.

The Warhawks, however, have yet to win in five official road games this season.

Poor shooting from the floor has plagued the Sun Belt team, netting just 247 of 588 attempts (47.9%), which ranks 315th out of the 361 Division I schools.

MJ Russell leads first-year coach Phil Cunningham's team at 17.4 points per game, while Lavell Brodnex and Renars Sondors add 13.0 and 10.4, respectively.

Homegrown guard Krystian Lewis adds 14.2 points and paces the squad with 3.2 assists and 1.7 steals.

--Field Level Media