Miami Hurricanes Win Over Virginia Might Cement NCAA Berth
The Miami Hurricanes win at Virginia Monday night just might be the win that cements an NCAA Tournament berth. Miami’s 54-48 overtime victory at John Paul Jones Arena was their first big road win of the season.
The Hurricanes seemed to have the game won a couple of times in regulation. After two Bruce Brown free throws put Miami up two with 27 seconds left in regulation, Anthony Lawrence was called for a foul on the Cavaliers Isaiah Wilkins with four seconds remaining in regulation. on what seemed to be a clean block.
Wilkins sank both free throws to tie the score. Miami had one last chance. Hurricanes Senior guard Davon Reed took the ball at about quarter court and dribbled it up to a few feet beyond the three-point line.
After having it knocked away by a UVA player, he regained the ball and appeared to win the game with a desperation shot at the buzzer for the win.
The call was waived off after the shot was a fraction of a second late. The ball was clearly still in Reed’s hands. Many teams would have been down going into overtime after seemingly have won the game on a pair of occasions.
The Cavaliers went ahead first in the extra session on a three-point field goal by Devon Hall. The teams traded the lead until Brown made a three-pointer with 19 seconds left to give the Hurricanes the lead for good.
Miami put the game away with four straight free throwns by Reed and Dejan Vasiljevic. The Hurricanes essentially won the game from the free throw line, They were 20-22 from the line, 15-41 from the floor and 4-19 from three point range.
They were only 6-17 in the second half. Other’s than Brown’s big three in overtime and a three from Vasiljevic to tie the game with just over a minute left in regulation, the Hurricanes offense from the field for the last ten minutes plus of regulation and overtime was virtually non-existent.
The overtime performance was reminiscent of Arizona’s 1997 NCAA Title game performance over Kentucky when all of UA’s points in overtime came from the charity stripe.
Brown turned in another heroic performance. He led the Hurricanes with 44 minutes played and 14 points. He played well beyond his years with his big shots down the stretch. Vasiljevic finished with ten and Kamari Murphy had ten points and 11 rebounds.
The win should get Miami in the NCAA Tournament. One more will would all but cement their status off the proverbial NCAA Tournament bubble.
The Hurricanes are currently in sole possession of sixth place in the ACC. As long as they don’t fall below ninth in the conference, they will have a bye on the first day. If they win at least one of their last three games they will finish no lower than ninth.
The sixth place team plays the winner of the game between the 11th seed and 14th seed on day two. That would currently matchup Wake Forest and North Carolina State. The Hurricanes swept the Wolfpack this season and lost their lone game to the Demon Deacons in Winston-Salem.
Next: Miami Basketball Finishes Regular Season With Difficult Four Game Stretch
Next Game: The Hurricanes return home on Saturday for Senior Day to face a surging Duke. The Blue Devils have gotten healthy after battling injury problems earlier in the season. Duke is 22-5 overall and 10-4, second in the ACC a game behind North Carolina. They have won seven straight and eight of their last nine. Duke plays at Syracuse on Wednesday night.