Miami Hurricanes Basketball: Hurricanes Lose Jekiri But Get Past Temple, 60-57; Advance to NIT Championship

Coming into Tuesday’s game, Jim Larranaga had never coached a game in Madison Square Garden, but after Tuesday, he has now done that, and he could add a win at MSG to his accolades. Quenton DeCosey missed a potential game-tying three at the buzzer to give the Miami Hurricanes a thrilling 60-57 win over the Temple Owls. With the win, the Hurricanes will play for the NIT championship on Thursday night at the Garden.

Like we’ve grown to expect, the first half was an adventure for the Hurricanes. Tonye Jekiri went down early in the first half after taking an elbow to the mouth, and it took some time for his teammates to adjust. Temple quickly extended their lead to 11, but the Canes pulled together for a late first half run.

Sheldon McClellan and Ja’Quan Newton led a Miami run that saw the Canes put together 9 consecutives points, to cut the Temple lead down to 2 with 1:25 left in the first half. Temple then went on to score the last three points of the half, taking a 30-25 lead into the break.

The Canes were only down five despite shooting just 33% from the floor – it plummeted down to 24% at one point – while Temple shot 43%.

In the second half, Miami – like they’ve had to do for most of the season – had to play from behind in the second half, but this time they would have to do it without arguably their best player in Tonye Jekiri. Jekiri was ruled out at halftime with a concussion. Miami will likely have to win the NIT championship without Jekiri on Thursday.

With Jekiri out, Temple attacked the offensive board and pounded Miami with 11 offensive rebounds in the second half, which resulted in 9 second-chance points. Nine of Temple’s first 11 points in the second half came after a missed shot. Thankfully for Miami, the Owls weren’t hitting anything else.

Temple shot a horrible 22% from the floor in the second half (9-40) and missed all of their fifteen three-point attempts. The Owls bailed the Canes out by not taking the ball to the rim, since Miami was missing their 7-foot defensive anchor. Senior Will Cummings was off all night for Temple, going 3-for-15 for the Owls. Once Canes target Obi Enechionyia played well for Temple, scoring a game-high 17 points on 5-for-9 shooting.

“Shots just didn’t go in. That’s really just all there is to it. Any other day, they are probably going in.” Said Enechionyia when asked about the team’s shooting struggles. “We just didn’t make them today,” he added.

Miami was looking for a spark off the bench with the injury to Jekiri, and they got just that from freshman Omar Sherman. Sherman came into the game and hit some timely buckets for the Canes, while also playing some solid defense and rebounding the ball well. Sherman scored all six of his points in the second half, shooting 3-for-5 in the process.

Sheldon McClellan led the way for the Hurricanes with 16 points, and he was energized throughout the entire game – perhaps the most I’ve ever seen him in person. McClellan was jumping up and down most of the second half, and he was making some big shots as well. The redshirt Junior hit two consecutive threes in the second half to give Miami their first lead of the game since the score was 9-8 in the first half.

“We weren’t being as aggressive as we normally are and second half we came out and played more aggressive I feel like, including myself.” Said McClellan after the game. “We just fed off our defense and it kind of led to fast-break baskets and getting to the free-throw line.”

Deandre Burnett had 8 points for Miami, but no points where bigger than the running layup the redshirt freshman hit with 35 ticks left to play in regulation. Burnett, however, left the door open for Temple, missing the front end of a one-and-one in the Canes last possession. Thankfully the DeCosey shot went just long and the Hurricanes came away with the victory.

It wasn’t easy, but we’ve come to expect that with this Hurricanes team this season. Now the team is just one win away from winning the NIT and hopefully catapulting them to what should be an exciting 2015-2016 campaign.