Miami Hurricanes Basketball: McClellan Shines as Miami Easily Handles Florida St.

In a preview of the Miami vs. Florida St. game I wrote earlier this week I talked about how close a game this would be, about how the intensity would be ratcheted up by Florida St. like the Hurricanes hadn’t seen all season. Well, shows how much I know.

In one of their most comprehensive victories of the season, Miami never trailed and 20 second half points from Sheldon McClellan led the Canes to a 72-59 win to improve to 13-1 on the season.

Playing in front of a raucous and packed BankUnited Center, the Canes waited just 55 seconds to take the lead and after that three-pointer by Davon Reed, Miami never looked back.

The junior from Ewing, NJ did all the heavy lifting for the Hurricanes in the first half as Sheldon McClellan and Angel Rodriguez struggled to produce. After his early three, Reed sank two more and had nine points in just the first 12 minutes. Making his 3-for-3 from three-point range even more remarkable was the fact he came into the game shooting 0-of-6 from deep in the last two games.

The crowd might have gotten loudest though in what is perhaps the play of the season so far. After a Florida St. miss, Tonye Jekiri grabbed a rebound and proceeded to dribble the length of the court, slide past two Seminoles defenders with a euro step and finished with a nasty slam. The play was crucial momentum-wise in this game, but also showed the extremely impressive improvement that Jekiri has experienced in his four years at Miami.

Despite the Canes playing so well and entertaining Dickie V with some “showtime-type” plays, the Seminoles continued to hang around. With a sloppy end to the first half that included a multitude of turnovers, the Hurricanes lead was at just 32-24.

As we have seen over the last two games though, the second half is when Miami and especially Sheldon McClellan and Ja’Quan Newton play their best basketball.

Right out of the gate, the transfer from Texas showed the Noles had no chance in the second half as he scored the first six Miami points out of the break. That run continued as Newton was effective attacking the basket and Miami’s lead stretched to 53-36. Those 21 points out of the half all came from the duo of McClellan and Newton.

With a big lead, Miami held Florida St’s “Big 3” in check as Dwayne Bacon, Malik Beasley and Xavier Rathan-Mayes all finished with point totals below their average.

In the end, the Hurricanes didn’t seem troubled at all and kept the Noles at arm’s length until the clock hit zero. McClellan finished with 21 and Newton finished with 13 as the Canes cruised to a 72-59 victory.

The win was certainly an impressive one and perhaps the only negative was the play of Angel Rodriguez. For the second straight game, the Kansas St. transfer struggled mightily on offense with a dismal shooting display and just six points. With Ja’Quan Newton plying so well, we shall see whether the calls for the sophomore to enter the starting lineup grow louder and whether the Miami coaching staff will actually listen. My gut is they won’t make a change until they start losing ball games.

With a significant Top 15 matchup at Virginia on the way, this victory was huge. The Canes have all the momentum going into Tuesday night and the Hoos have absolutely none as they have lost two in a row.

That Virginia game on paper looks like it could be close, but what do I know just like tonight, Miami may just go blow them out.