Miami Hurricanes Basketball: Hurricanes Keep Tournament Hopes Alive With 89-86 Double Overtime Win Against Boston College

Raise your hand if the Miami Hurricanes have taken away years of your life due to stress? Yeah, my hand is up right now, too.

The Hurricanes are in must-win mode throughout the season if they want to make the big dance come March. Miami came into Monday’s game against Boston College as one of Joe Lunardi’s first-four out come tournament time, so a win against lowly Virginia Tech was an absolute must-win, or any remaining hope could be put to rest. The Canes battled all day and escaped Chesnut Hill with a 89-86 double-overtime win.

Miami fans have been calling for Deandre Burnett to get into the rotation for weeks now, and with Miami’s tournament hope fading away, Coach Larranaga turned to Burnett and unleashed the talented scorer.

Burnett answered the call.

Down four with under six minutes to go in the second half, Sheldon McClellan found Burnett in the left wing for a three-pointer that cut the Boston College lead down to just one. A couple minutes later, Angel Rodriguez found Burnett in the corner for another three ball with 4:34 left to tie the game up at 59.

In the last minute of regulation, the Hurricanes actually had a one-point lead with 54.4 seconds, but a weird situation found Boston College with the ball again and Rodriguez found himself on the bench with five fouls.

Rodriguez swung his elbows to try and create some separation, but his right elbow caught Dimitri Batten in the nose. The ref initially called Batten for a blocking foul, but after the crew reviewed the play, the kept the blocking foul on Batten, but also called a foul on Rodriguez, which fouled him out of the game. To make things worse, Davon Reed got called for a technical foul on the play, which gave Boston College some life.

After Manu Lecomte hit both free throws from the blocking foul, Olivier Hanlan split his free throws, keeping Miami’s lead at 2 with just under a minute in regulation. A couple Aaron Brown free-throws later, and the game was tied at 66.

Following a Burnett offensive foul call, Brown missed a runner in the lane which sent this game into overtime.

Angel Rodriguez is usually the player that likes to take over for the Canes when things get tough, but with him fouling out, somebody had to do it on Monday. That somebody was Deandre Burnett.

Hanlan came out on fire to start the first overtime period, scoring 7 of his game-high 32 points in the first three minutes of overtime. While Miami looked for a way to guard Hanlan, Patrick Heckmann got into the lane and gave a nice dish to Dennis Clifford for a slam, and Miami’s chances began to look bleak.

Down 4 with 24 seconds left in the first overtime, Burnett drove quick to the basket and finished off a huge three-point play that gave Miami some hope. Batten then followed that up by splitting his free-throws, giving Boston College a 76-74 lead with 18 seconds to go.

Burnett again took it upon himself to make a big play, and drove hard again and was fouled again, sending him to the free-throw line looking to tie the game yet again. Burnett found himself on the foul line, oozing with confidence, he took one dribble before his jumper and got nothing but nylon on both of his attempts, tying the game at 76.

Boston College still had a chance to win the game, and they got a point-blank layup attempt for Heckmann and he just missed it as it hit the front of the rim. My heart skipped about 7 beats during this play.

In the second overtime, Miami only hit one shot from the floor, but huge free throws down the stretch by Lecomte and Tonye Jekiri prevailed the Canes to a huge 89-86 win against a pesky Boston College team.

It wasn’t the prettiest looking game from Miami, but during Selection Sunday, they don’t ask how, just how many.

Deandre Burnett provided a huge spark and without his 13 points, Miami heads back home with a loss. Sheldon McClellan also played a huge role with his team-high 24 points. McClellan had huge timely buckets down the stretch, and had a nice defensive game as well. Tonye Jekiri struggled during some parts of the game, but he recorded yet another double-double with his 12-point, 15-rebound performance. He also added in four blocks on Monday, and four huge free throws in the second overtime.

Olivier Hanlan continued his scoring outburst with a game-high 32 points on 13-for-26 shooting.

Miami now flies back home to some warm weather and faces a quick turnaround as they host Virginia Tech Wednesday night at the BankUnited Center. The Canes face a similar scenario against the Hokies: a win and they’re still in it, a loss and tournament hopes die.