UM’s defense helps it earn win over B. C.
CORAL GABLES — Through weeks and weeks of ups and downs, Miami players tried to stay even keel.
They were confident eventually, the first home ACC win would come. They figured if they kept plugging away, they could put together a little bit of a late- season win streak.
And with just four games left in the regular season, the Hurricanes put together one of their most complete efforts of the year to notch a 69- 42 win over Boston College on Saturday afternoon.
The 27- point margin of victory was Miami’s biggest of the season and it came days after the Hurricanes picked up their first conference home win of the season after Wednesday’s 71- 64 victory over Notre Dame.
“I like that our defensive game plan has been very well executed. We’ve been really contesting things much better than any other time in the season,” Miami coach Jim Larrañaga said.
“Offensively, whenwe do whatwe did today and keep attacking, guys can make those shots … today, we were very patient and Iwas very concerned, because [ Friday] in practice, we weren’t. Yesterday, I thought we showed signs of fatigue and hurrying, which is what we did against Virginia Tech. So to play the way we did for 40 minutes, especially that second half scoring 42 points, shooting 59 percent from the field and 62 percent from 3-[ point range], you can’t ask for any better than that.”
With the victory, Miami ( 14- 13,5- 9) has now won two straight in ACC play for the first time this season and three of its last four overall. And this win came against a Boston College team that arrived at the BankUnited Center days after pickingup one of the biggest upsets of the college basketball season.
Boston College stunned previously top- ranked Syracuse Wednesday night, earning a 62- 59 overtime win at the Carrier Dome and snapping the Orange’s 25- game win streak. But Saturday, Miami’s defense held the Eagles to a seasonlow in points and kept sharp- shooting Boston College — which converted on four 3- pointers in the first 20 minutes — from connecting on any of their eight attempts from beyond the arc in the second half.
“We felt like they were probably coming here thinking, ‘ Hey, we just beat Syracuse. We can definitely beat Miami,’ ” said Miami’s Rion Brown, who finished with a game- high 22 points. “We just wanted to come out and play our game, execute our game plan and not even really think about that. We respect Boston College as a basketball team. We know they’re a good team. We knew we had to come in and play our best.”
While Boston College ( 7- 20, 3- 11) struggled, Miami capitalized on career performances from Brown and fellow senior Erik Swoope. Brown led four Miami players in double figures and his 3- pointer with 14: 38 left in the first half pushed him over the career 1,000- point mark. Swoope meanwhile tied his career- high 14 points and had a careerhigh nine rebounds.
Gators’ winning streak reaches19
ScottieWilbekin scored a team- high 18 points and Michael Frazier II drilled five 3- pointers, helping No. 2UF earn a 75- 71 road win over upset- minded Ole Miss.
The Gators extended their school- best winning streak to 19 games and are on track to move up toNo. 1 in the polls Monday.
Patric Young scored eight of his 12 points in thesecond half for Florida ( 25- 2, 14- 0 SEC), which avenged last season’s 66- 63 loss to Ole Miss in the conference tournament final.
Marshall Henderson scored all 22 of his points in the first half for Ole Miss ( 16- 11, 7- 7), which has dropped four in a row for the first time since January 2011.