Haley Cavinder scores 33 as Canes rally past Noles
As the shot clock was winding down, Miami Hurricanes guard Haley Cavinder launched the ball in the air and watched it bank off the backboard and swish through the basket.
“The bank was my friend,” Cavinder said. “I was surprised by it, but it helped us.”
It did much more than help the Hurricanes.
Cavinder’s three-pointer — her seventh of the game — gave Miami its first lead over the No. 19 FSU Seminoles since the final minute of the first quarter.
Miami never looked back after that.
The Hurricanes used a furious second-half comeback to upset the Seminoles 86-82 on Thursday at the Watsco Center.
Miami improves to
16-8 on the season and 9-4 in Atlantic Coast
Conference play. The Seminoles fall to 20-6 and 9-4.
“They’re really good,” Miami coach Katie Meier said of FSU, “but it turns out Miami’s pretty good, too.”
Meier knew the Hurricanes needed a game like this, a win like this, especially in a top-heavy ACC with seven of 15 teams entering Thursday with wins in at least two-thirds of their conference games entering the final month of the regular season.
The Hurricanes entered Thursday projected to be one of the last four in for the NCAA Tournament, according to ESPN’s bracketology.
“It’s a home game against a ranked team,” Meier said. “Those look really good on your résumé.”
But there was a point when it looked like the Hurricanes weren’t even going to make the game competitive. Miami trailed 44-33 at halftime, with the Hurricanes shooting just 30.8 percent from the field (12 for 39) and 38.5 percent from three (5 for 13) in the first 20 minutes.
And then came the second-half comeback bid, a 20-minute stretch in which they shot 55.6 percent from the field (15 for 27), hit 6 of 9 three-pointers (four of which came from Cavinder) and made 17 of 21 free throws.
It started with a 9-0 Miami scoring spurt at the start of the third quarter to get within two points, although FSU got its lead back up to 65-59 going into the fourth quarter. Miami tied the score twice in the final period — first on a Destiny Harden jumper to make it 67-67 with 7:06 left to play and then again on a Jasmyn Roberts three-pointer with 4:25 left.
But it was Cavinder’s final three-pointer that finally pushed them back over the top and her clutch free throws to ensure they kept the lead.
Cavinder led all scorers with a career-high 33 points, 24 of which came in the second half. It topped her previous singlegame season high of 25 points set on Dec. 11 against the Florida Gators. She hit 7 of 10 three-point attempts — one shy of tying the Hurricanes’ single-game record — and sank all 10 of her freethrow attempts in the fourth quarter.
“I was just trusting my shot, trusting my threepoint shot,” Cavinder said. “My teammates were hitting me on kickbacks and drags. That was the game plan. Just come in confident and just keep shooting.”
Roberts added 19 points, Ja’Leah Williams had 14 and Harden had 10.
Four players had at least 12 points for FSU, with Makayla Timpson posting
a team-high 19.
The Hurricanes held FSU freshman phenom and Miami native Ta’Niya Latson to just 12 points — her fourth-lowest scoring effort of the season — on 5-of-14 shooting.
Miami travels to face No. 9 Duke on Sunday, with tipoff set for 2 p.m.