The Miami Hurricanes used an 18-2 second half run and withstood a late Virginia Tech rally to defeat the Hokies 74-68 at the Watsco Center Wednesday night.
Miami’s run answered a 9-0 Virginia Tech run that erased a nine point Hurricane lead early in the second half. The Hurricanes run gave them a 65-49 lead with 7:13 remaining in the game. The Hokies never got close enough to seriously challenge Miami. They only pulled within six twice. A layup at the buzzer by Va Tech’s Seth Allen narrowed the final margin to six.
Miami was able to put the game away after Virginia Tech’s Justin Robinson was called for a technical foul with 33 seconds remaining in the game. After Robinson hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to six, he raised his arms in frustration over what he thought should have been a foul call on Miami’s Ja’Quan Newton. Robinson bumped into a referee resulted in the technical.
Davon Reed made both free throws to extend the lead to eight. Miami was able to run the clock down to 19 seconds, before Bruce Brown missed a dunk.
Reed led four Hurricanes in double figures with 18, Newton had 16, Kamari Murphy 10 and Anthony Lawrence came off the bench to score 12. Ebuka Izundu also contributed off the bench with eight.
The bench played a big role for the second straight game. Miami’s bench outscored VA Tech’s 25-20. Miami had not been getting much from their bench before the win over NC State on Saturday. Jim Larranaga has now received 60 points from the bench in the last two games. All but five of that has been from Lawrence and Izundu.
Larranaga was pleased with the production he received from his bench:
“I loved the way Anthony Lawrence Jr., and Ebuka are playing, and they play a lot together. Ebuka played 19 minutes tonight and Anthony Lawrence Jr., played 29. You had DJ (Vasiljevic) who made two big buckets, a three and a two, one as the shot clock ended. Very pleased with the production off our bench.”
The Hurricanes tightened up their defense after halftime. The Hokies were 11-21 in the first half, 11-25 after the break. VATech struggled on three-point attempts, making just 4-13 for the game.
The Hurricanes won in spite of Bruce Brown struggling. The freshman phenom finished 1-12 from the field, 0-5 on three-point attempts and scored just two points. He did contribute five rebounds and four assists.
Virginia Tech had five players finish in double figures. They were led by Robinson with 15 points.
Next Game: Miami travels to number four Louisville on Saturday. The Cardinals are 19-5 overall and 7-4, fifth in the ACC. Louisville is coming off of a 71-55 loss at Virginia on Monday.
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