CORAL GABLES, Florida — Fresh off the most encouraging performance of the season — despite falling to Wake Forest on the road — the University of Maryland Eastern Shore faces its third straight Atlantic Coast Conference Opponent Sunday afternoon in No. 24 (AP) Miami.

"We are finding our identity and that is what I am excited about as we are playing above our heads," head coach Fred Batchelor said. "I think the Wake Forest game was a huge game for us after dropping Buffalo, dropping Longwood and dropping Richmond — three games I believe we should have won — we are trying to find some positives while going up against some giants on the road."

Batchelor found positives in the loss at No.15 Syracuse that he hopes will help his team at the end of the season. And then he looked for more.

"I think our kids gave us that at Wake Forest," Batchelor said. "I think they gave us a silver lining. I was happy the kids played well and I think it will help their confidence. It makes them feel better and we have to find a way to capitalize off that to get through this to face more like opponents and conference play."

The Hurricanes (8-2) have won two straight and boast a win this season against No. 19 Marquette. Miami's frontline of Beatrice Mompremier at 6-foot-4 and Emese Hof at 6-foot-3 present a sizable challenge for the Hawks up front. The pair combine to average 27.2 points and 20.1 rebounds.

"The four (Hof) and the five (Mompremier) are really where they outsize us," Batchelor said. "On the wings and the guards I think our kids will matchup with them size wise. They force your because of their size to do some different things defensively."

The Hawks will adjust the defense to try and take that away, but a hot-shooting afternoon from the outside for the 'Canes could make it a long game for The Shore. Laura Cornelius (10.3 ppg.) is shooting 41 percent from behind the arc and Kelsey Marshall (10 ppg.) makes 3-pointers at a 34 percent clip.

"We are going to be banking on Miami not having a good day from the perimeter," Batchelor said. "We did that against Syracuse and it didn't pay off, but that's why they are the No. 15 team in the country. I think with this team we have to bank on the fact that we need to control the paint."

Senior Ciani Byrom (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) leads the Hawks in scoring 14.4 points per game and assists (4.9), while sophomore Bairesha Gill-Miles (Lexington, Kentucky) is second in scoring (10.5 ppg.) and leads the team in rebounding with 6.9 per game.

Senior Keyera Eaton's (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) 24-point performance at Wake Forest raised her scoring average to 9.9 points per game.

After returning to campus, Eastern Shore will travel to Mount St. Mary's on Dec. 20 and then will be off until contests at George Mason (Dec. 28) and University of Maryland Baltimore County (Dec. 31).

"This is huge because we have one more before the Christmas break," Batchelor said. "We come back on the 28^th and I thought maybe the time off for Thanksgiving may have hurt us against Longwood. We may come up against that same thing, but right now we have Miami and we have Mount St. Mary's and going into that is going to be a big game for us after three ACC opponents."