With just four games remaining in the regular season and a chance to challenge North Carolina for the ACC regular season title on the line, Jim Larranaga and his hard-nosed Hurricanes did just enough on Monday night to hold off Virginia, 64-61.
Trailing 60-52 in the final minutes, Malcolm Brogdon carries the Cavs back within one, 60-59, when a missed layup by Mike Tobey ultimately put Tonye Jekiri on the line with a chance to extend the lead, the final lead of the game for either team.
Miami didn’t get the best nights out of Angel Rodriguez or Sheldon McClellan, instead relying on the surprising brilliance of Davon Reed and his 21 points to outlast Brogdon and his 28 points effort.
The Hurricanes are now just .5-games back of the Tar Heels at 11-4 in conference play, with a home date remaining against Louisville before they finish their regular season on the road at Notre Dame and Virginia Tech. They are 3-4 on the road in ACC play, having beaten Florida State last week, Georgia Tech before that, and Boston College earlier in the season. However they’ve also dropped games at Clemson and North Carolina State, meaning that UM wants to finish things off right and move North Carolina out of their way, they’ll have to conquer the kind of road demons that derail so many teams this time of year.
While it’s obvious that Miami will be a threat to anyone come the NCAA Tournament, adding an ACC regular season title would announce to the country that the Canes have as good of a shot as anyone to cut down the nets come early April.
