The Miami basketball team lost 88-85 in overtime to North Carolina on Saturday. The Hurricanes game with the Tar Heels was eerily similar to last season’s game in Chapel Hill.
North Carolina needed a three-point shot from Joel Berry in last season’s game in Chapel Hill against the Miami basketball team to tie the game late. A Ja’Quan Newton 30-footer won the game for the Hurricanes at the buzzer. A Luke Maye three with ten seconds left in regulation tied the game at 77 on Saturday.
Wearing the same number zero as Newton, Miami’s Chris Lykes jumper at the buzzer in regulation missed and the game went to overtime. It took two minutes before Anthony Lawrence scored the first points of overtime to give Miami a 79-77 lead. The Tar Heels scored the next seven and never trailed after that.
Lykes and North Carolina Freshman point guard Coby White put on a show in the second half. White finished with 33 points, six assists and made 7-10 three-point attempts. Lykes was one point off of his career high with 27 points. He added five assists and was 5-11 on three-point attempts.
Miami controlled the tempo in the first half. A layup by Lykes with two seconds remaining pulled Miami within 31-30 at halftime. The Hurricanes control of the tempo in the first half was critical to staying in the game. Miami wasn’t able to keep the tempo as deliberate in the second half, but both teams were on fire after halftime.
Miami shot 56.7 seven percent in the second half and North Carolina, 64 percent. The Hurricanes and Tar Heels were unconscious from three. Miami was 10-17 and North Carolina 9-12 from beyond the arc after halftime.
A lot of that came from Lykes and White. The Miami basketball team did not wilt in the second half as they have done often this season. It looked like the Tar Heels would blow the game open when they took a 47-40 lead after a White three with 15:28 remaining in regulation.
Miami flipped the scoreboard with a 13-0 run over the next 3:12 that gave the Hurricanes a 53-47 lead. The Hurricanes kept that lead until a White three-point field goal with 3:20 left in the second half gave North Carolina a 68-66 lead. In less than two minutes the lead would change hands three more times.
The Hurricanes played one of their best games of the season. They surprisingly outrebounded North Carolina and shot 47.1 percent on the road against the nation’s eighth-ranked team.
Anthony Lawrence had another outstanding game against North Carolina with 17 points and nine rebounds, Zach Johnson added 13 on a sprained ankle and Dejan Vasiljevic scored 11 and had seven rebounds. Maye scored 20 for North Carolina and had six rebounds.
The loss in Chapel Hill ends a brutal stretch of games against ranked teams. Miami hosts Clemson on Wednesday night at the Watsco Center. It is the first of four games against unranked teams for the Hurricanes to close out February.