Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
March sadness for Hurricanes
Loyola-Chicago beats UM on last second shot
Buzzer-beating 3-pointer ousts UM from NCAA tournament.
It wasn’t how Lonnie Walker IV dreamed it up as a kid.
Walker called this scenario “a dagger to the heart.” Donte Ingram wielded the dagger. It came with less than a second remaining and Ingram’s 3-pointer sent sixthseeded Miami and their star freshman Walker back to their hotel to pack up early, the Hurricanes second straight quick exit from the NCAA Tournament. It also sent Ingram’s No. 11-seeded Loyola-Chicago to a second-round matchup with No. 3 Tennessee with a 64-62 victory at America Airlines Center.
“It definitely hurts seeing a shot like that go in,” Walker said, “but I’m proud of my team and how we fought and how we played.”
Miami head coach Jim Larranaga thought his team had played well enough to win, but he’s been a part of this March Madness before.
He was head coach of No. 6-seeded George Mason in 2006 when his team knocked off No. 11 Michigan State. As Larranaga eluded to prior to Thursday’s game, none of that matters when teams get to the Big Dance.
“Teams that make this tournament are really good, and whether you’re a high seed or a low seed, it really depends on how you play. I thought we played well enough to win this game,” Larranaga said. “We had our chances.”
Miami played about as well as Larranaga could have drawn it up. The Hurricanes hit
“We put ourselves in position to win, but so did Loyola.” Jim Larranaga, Miami head coach
better than 50 percent of their field goals (25 of 49). They hit 44 percent of their 3-pointers (4 of 9). They held a 33-27 edge in rebounds.
“We put ourselves in position to win,” Larranaga said, “but so did Loyola.”
And that was the key. The Ramblers seemed to always be in position. They worked their game to perfection and took Miami out of its defense just enough to confuse the Hurricanes.
To back up that fact one only needs to look at the assists column of the final box score. The 19 assists, eight from Ben Richardson, showed Loyola’s ability to find the open man. When Miami guarded the post, Loyola found someone open for a 3-pointer. When the 3 was covered, Loyola dished inside.
“They set a lot of screens in the middle of the court and rolled the man to the basket, and sometimes our help defense was there and very good, but other times we were worried so much about them making 3s that the help defender left early so he could cover a 3-point shooter,” Larranaga said. “We tried making adjustments in the first half, did a little bit better job in the second half, but not quite well enough to come out on top.”
The Hurricanes, however, still looked to be in control of this one early in the second half. They came out of halftime with some new energy, and after a 3-pointer from Chris Lykes, a steal by Lykes, and back-to-back baskets from senior Ja’Quan Newton, Miami had its largest lead of the game at 41-34 with 14:34 left.
No matter what the Hurricanes did, however, the Ramblers had answers.
“We pulled ahead of them in the second half, and they fought back, but I thought we made some very good plays” Larranaga said.
The Ramblers made just enough plays to keep pace, but Larranaga still thought the Hurricanes were headed to Saturday.
“I thought the defensive stop that we got with the two-point lead with under 10 seconds to go, I believe, I thought that was going to seal the victory for us. But something that happens quite often in this tournament, someone steps up and makes a huge shot.”
That momentum came down to Ingram, who’s shot will join NCAA upset lore forever.
“I’ve been saying all the last week when people have been asking me how does it feel to get to the tournament, and I’ve been saying, this is – as a kid, this is what you grow up seeing, hoping that you can be in that moment,” Ingram said. “For me to be in this position with these guys, with this coaching staff, I wouldn’t want it any other way, and I’m just obviously blessed to hit that shot, and I’m happy that we can get on and advance to [play] Tennessee.”
For Walker, there will be ... other possible NCAA Tournament opportunities, but for Newton, it stings a little more, and his teammate felt for him.
“It for sure hurts because your teammates, such as Ja’Quan who’s a senior, you come to the realization it’s your last game with them,” Walker said.
He also had some parting words the Loyola players.
“Hats off to them,” he said. “… hope they do well in the tournament.”