No. 16 UM falls in OT to N.C. State on the road
RALEIGH, N.C.
Ernest Ross was ready every time the ball came his way in a suddenly bigger-than-usual role for North Carolina State.
The 6-9 second-year forward scored on a go-ahead putback in traffic with 33 seconds left in overtime, part of a career day that helped the Wolfpack hold off No. 16 Miami 83-81 Saturday for a second win against a ranked foe this year.
Ross finished with 17 points and nine rebounds in an unexpected boost. He was averaging 2.2 points and 1.7 rebounds and had never scored more than eight points in a career interrupted last year by injury.
“This is my opportunity, and I used my opportunity well,” Ross said.
The Wolfpack (14-4, 4-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) needed it after blowing a double-digit lead against Miami for the second time this year. Only this time, Kevin Keatts’ squad regrouped to win.
Terquavion Smith scored 20 points to lead the Wolfpack. Big man DJ Burns added 13 points, nine rebounds and a career-best seven assists as N.C. State ran a chunk of its second-half offense through him in the middle.
The Wolfpack also had stops on the Hurricanes’ last two possessions to clinch this one.
Isaiah Wong had 25 points and six rebounds to lead Miami (14-3, 5-2), while Jordan Miller had 13 and an overtime-forcing 3-pointer over Ross with 28.6 seconds left.
Miami shot 56.9% and erased a
Josh Allen’s comments came in passing but they proved prescient.
“That’s a really good football team,” the Buffalo quarterback said after the Week 15 meeting between the Dolphins and Bills. “Who knows if we’ll see them again? I’m pretty positive we will.”
Allen wasn’t far removed from giving the Dolphins a 32-29 loss, one that, while marking Miami’s third consecutive defeat in what would be a winless December, was a reminder that the team could go blow-for-blow with an elite squad in the NFL.
Almost a month to the date of that prime-time matchup, the seventh-seeded Dolphins will face the No. 2 seed Bills at Highmark Stadium in Orchard
Park, New York, in the wildcard round of the NFL playoffs on Sunday.
“It’s about time. It’s about time,” inside linebacker Jerome Baker said of the franchise’s first playoff game since the 2016 season. “But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you don’t go up there and get the win, so I’m going to do everything I can to get the win, get the guys going and we’re going to come out ready to go and we’re going to get it done.”
The Dolphins, though, will head back to Orchard Park as a diminished version of the team that almost swept the Bills. Starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa has been ruled out for his third consecutive game, as he remains in the league’s concussion protocol. Tagovailoa has not been