Hurricanes fall in overtime heartbreaker

CORAL GABLES — The Miami Hurricanes nearly had their second upset victory in a week, but a buzzer-beating 3-pointer in regulation sent No. 16 Virginia Tech to overtime, where the Hokies sank UM.

Still without preseason All-ACC guard Chris Lykes and still playing with only seven scholarship players, the Hurricanes fell to Virginia Tech, 80-76, on Saturday afternoon at Watsco Center.

Sophomore guard Isaiah Wong hit a 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds left in regulation to put Miami up, 74-71, but VT’s Hunter Cattoor connected on a buzzer-beating three of his own to send the game into overtime. Cattoor appeared to step out of bounds before the shot, as television replays showed, but that aspect of the play was not reviewable.

“When we were up by three, I feel like we had a good opportunity to win, but we all tried to stay calm and try to focus on what they were trying to do,” said Wong, who scored 19 points. “We all knew they were going to have a great play to set their shooters up for a great three, and they did just that. We didn’t communicate as well as we [should].”

UM coach Jim Larrañaga had not seen the replay when he spoke to reporters after the game.

“Someone just told me that the guy who made the shot stepped out of bounds. I don’t know if that’s true or not,” Larrañaga said. “A strange ending to a game if, in fact, the guy who made the game-tying shot was out of bounds. I’ll be very disappointed if I find out that was a violation.”

Nahiem Alleyne knocked down a floater in the lane to give the Hokies a lead with 25 seconds left in overtime. Senior guard Elijah Olaniyi, who had 19 points, like Wong, then was called for an offensive foul with six seconds to play, and Cattoor hit two free throws to make it a two-possession game before a long inbound pass was intercepted to finish it.

Miami (7-11, 3-10 ACC) could not compound Monday’s thrilling home win over Duke into another one. The Hokies (14-4, 8-3) bounced back from Wednesday’s loss to Pittsburgh.

“I told them they should not put their heads down,” Larrañaga said. “It’s very deflating losing a game like that.”

Wong added nine rebounds and six assists to go with his 19 points, and senior guard Kameron McGusty scored 18 points.

Virginia Tech’s Justyn Mutts had a game-high 22 points, plus nine rebounds and seven assists. Keve Aluma had 16 points, six rebounds and five assists, and Cattoor finished with 14 for the Hokies.

Center Nysier Brooks’ put-back dunk with 3:34 to play in regulation gave Miami its first lead of the second half, 68-66. Wong’s 3-pointer with 4:15 left tied the game at, 66, before it.

Tightly contested through the first three-fourths of Saturday’s matchup, Virginia Tech appeared to pull away with a 9-0 run that started about midway through the second half to go up 11, 59-48, with 8:03 to play.

The Hurricanes, however, answered with a 10-0 run of their own to get back within one, 59-58, at the 6:12 mark. Wong hit three free throws after he was fouled shooting from beyond the arc and then came back down for a made triple that followed.

“I’m glad with the way we fought,”

McGusty said. “We got down in the second half, and came rightly back. I’m proud of our fight. We just came up short.”

At halftime, VT led, 31-28, after a first half in which neither team led by more than five points and there were six lead changes.

Despite Lykes getting significant work in practice this past week for the first time since injuring his left ankle on Dec. 4 against Stetson, he missed his 16th consecutive game on Saturday.

“He practiced on Thursday and Friday. He definitely dramatically improved from where he was, even a week ago, and we expect him back pretty shortly,” Larrañaga said.

Miami also remained without freshman guard/forward Earl Timberlake (left shoulder). Forward Sam Waardenburg and center Rodney Miller are out for season, and last week, the Hurricanes parted ways with freshman forward Matt Cross.

Brooks was back in the starting lineup on Saturday after coming off the bench the past two games and had 10 points and 12 rebounds.

The Hurricanes next play at North Carolina on Monday in a 7 p.m. tip.