UM women lose but Meier expects an NCAA berth
The ninth-seeded University of Miami women’s basketball team trailed top seed Virginia Tech by just two late in Friday’s ACC tournament quarterfinal, but the Hokies got hot and advanced with a 55-47 victory in Greensboro, N.C.
Tech’s Georgia Amoore scored 23 of her game-high 27 points in the second half. The 11th-ranked Hokies (24-6) were missing three-time ACC player of the year Elizabeth Kitley, who hurt her ankle against Virginia last weekend and is out for the ACC tournament.
Miami (19-12) was coming off a win over North Carolina, and though the Hurricanes fell short Friday,
coach Katie Meier gushed about her team’s effort, saying “the light bulb turned on.”
She said her team — which last year reached the ACC quarters, got into the NCAA Tournament with 19 wins and reached the Elite Eight — has a strong enough resume to get in the NCAA Tournament again.
“I am so proud of my team, holy, moly,” she said. “We saw grit, effort, hustle, resilience, toughness . ...
“We can take a team [Virginia Tech] that is very good and was in the Final Four last year and have a chance in the fourth quarter to beat them with grit, even if we’re not hitting. So, I think we’re a very dangerous team and I don’t think anybody’s going to want to play us in the NCAA Tournament, but there’s no doubt we played our way in.”
Jasmyne Roberts scored 12 points for UM, Shayeann Day-Wilson added 11 and Ja’Leah Williams had a career-high 12 rebounds.
Miami went 1-of-14 from three-point range, and that was a key factor in the loss, as was
Amoore.
“Amoore’s an incredible player,” Roberts said. “First half we contained her, second half shots started falling for her.
“We did the same defense the entire game, gapped up on her, took away her vision, but a couple of times she was able to get past and do what Amoore does.
“It felt like we were playing such amazing defense on her, and then, boom, she has 27.”
UM-FSU IN FINALE
The UM men’s basketball team, which has lost eight games in a row, finishes its regular season at Florida State on Saturday at 4 p.m. (ESPN2).
Both teams are 15-15. The Hurricanes beat the Seminoles, 86-63, in Tallahassee last season, but FSU has been the dominant team in recent years. The Seminoles won, 8475, in January, the sixth time in a row they beat UM as the visiting team.
Asked about the rivalry, UM coach Jim Larrañaga said: “There hasn’t been a rivalry; they’ve handled us so often for the last five, six years that we’ve not been able to figure out the formula for beating them.
“We’ve beaten Clemson three times in a row, we’ve beaten Carolina two or three times in a row; there’s certain teams you match up with better and can play better. Florida State’s not been one of those.
“Their defense and size really bothers us. They’re very, very quick. They’re long. They’ve got like three seven-footers, or 6-11 guys that can block shots and dunk the ball on you. They’re a very hard matchup for us defensively.”
The Seminoles have six players 6-9 or taller on their roster. The Canes have two.
If the Hurricanes make some threes, they can go on a roll, Larrañaga said, and he hopes they will do that.
Guard Nijel Pack left Wednesday’s game against Boston College with a knee injury and his status for Saturday is unknown.