Harris rallies No. 21 Miami by Duke
November 21, 2009
MIAMI (AP)—Jacory Harris threw for 348 yards and two touchdowns, DarrylSharpton capped his final home game with a 73-yard interception return for ascore, and No. 21 Miami staved off a Duke challenge for the fourth straight yearin a 34-16 win Saturday.
Damien Berry’s 2-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter opened thefloodgates for Miami (8-3, 5-3 Atlantic Coast Conference). Leonard Hankerson hadcareer bests of eight catches and 143 yards—including a 44-yard score—forthe Hurricanes, who scored the final 24 points to keep hope alive for theirfirst 10-win season since 2003.
Thaddeus Lewis finished 20 of 37 for 303 yards for Duke (5-6, 3-4), takingover the school’s all-time lead in passing yardage with 9,678. Donovan Varnercaught eight passes for a career-high 165 yards and a touchdown for the BlueDevils, who have now lost 55 straight away from home against ranked opponents,dating to October 1971.
Duke took a 16-10 lead on Will Snyderwine’s third field goal of the game, a26-yarder early in the third quarter.
After that, it was all Miami.
Duke was eliminated from bowl contention. The Blue Devils were seeking theirfirst postseason appearance since 1994.
Berry—with the sparse crowd announced at 38,200 chanting his namethroughout the drive—scored with 13:41 left to cap a 15-play, 90-yard marchand put Miami ahead to stay. Hankerson’s TD grab, stretching over the goal linewhile being tackled, made it a two-score game. Then Sharpton made his firstcareer interception count 90 seconds later, picking Lewis off and streaking tothe end zone.
Harris completed 25 of 43 passes—with an ailing right hand protected by abrace—and now has 3,003 yards this season, making him the seventh Miamiquarterback with a 3,000-yard season and the first since Ken Dorsey in 2002.
Miami was a three-touchdown favorite, which only goes to show thatoddsmakers paid little attention to series history.
It’s hardly been a one-sided set of recent meetings.
— In 2006, one week after Miami’s infamous brawl with FIU, thesuspension-depleted Hurricanes went to Durham and needed a last-secondinterception of a pass by Lewis at the goal line to seal a 20-15 win.
— In 2007, Lewis was sacked by Eric Moncur to stop a drive with 3 minutesleft, and Miami got a late touchdown to win 24-14.
— Last year, Duke led 24-14 in the third quarter before Harris put on ashow, getting four of his five TDs in the second half and leading Miami to a49-31 win, a game in which Blue Devils coach David Cutcliffe acknowledged thisweek his team “just really shut down.”
It was more of a wearing down in this one.