Hurricanes rally to win 1st game in league play
Miami overcomes cold shooting early in victory
CORALGABLES— Already once this week, the Hurricanes found themselves having to rally for a win.
That experience came in handy when 13th-ranked Miami found itself trailing one of college basketball’s traditional powerhouse programs in the Hurricanes’ conference opener.
Miami, which trailed Syracuse by double digits in the first half, outscored the Orange by 21 in the second en route to a 64-51 win at the BankUnited Center on Saturday afternoon.
The win, Miami’s first in ACC play, marked the second consecutive time the Hurricanes have beaten the Orange (10-5, 0-2) after losing four in a row to Syracuse going back to 2003. And it came four days after UM rallied from a halftime deficit against Princeton to close out non-conference play.
“I definitely think the Princeton game helped us,” said Sheldon McClellan, who finished with a game-high 22 points against Syracuse after struggling against the Tigers. “Like coach [Jim Larrañaga] said, we needed a game where we needed to come from behind, to show how tough we are and stay together as a team and stick to the script. So, I think that Princeton definitely helped us tonight.”
On a day in which its offense at times strug-
gled against Syracuse’s vaunted zone defense, Miami did its best to turn up the defensive pressure itself. The Hurricanes forced the Orange into 19 turnovers, scoring 20 points off those miscues. And point guard Angel Rodriguez, one of Miami’s steadiest scorers, was just 1-of-9 from the field Saturday — but he had a game-high six steals to set the tone defensively.
One of those steals came during the middle of a 12-0 Miami run late in the second half that led to Rodriguez’s lone basket of the day — a lay-up with 3:47 left that the guard turned into a 3-point play after he was fouled by Syracuse’s Michael Gbinije.
Also helping key Miami’s comeback was sophomore guard Ja’Quan Newton, who hit the first of his two 3-pointers at the 7:08 mark to give Miami a 44-42 lead. His second trey — one of just three Miami hit all afternoon — came minutes later and put Miami (12-1, 1-0) ahead for good.
Syracuse, led by Malachi Richardson’s 20 points, wouldn’t get close again.
“When somebody gives me the shot, I’m confident enough to make it.” Miami sophomore guard Ja’Quan Newton
“I do what I do best, and when somebody gives me the shot, I’m confident enough to make it,” said Newton, who was recruited by Syracuse out of Philadelphia’s NeumannGoretti High before signing with Miami. “And Syracuse did that and I made them pay.”
Added Syracuse interim coach Mike Hopkins, “We felt [Newton] was a key guy that we had to keep out of the lane and for the most part, we did. I also know he has a lot of pride. He’s a talented boy … that was the game, in my opinion. Obviously, free throws were big, but those two 3s were huge. That was on us. I thought players, our players, executed to a ‘T.’ They stayed off of him, kept it out of the lane and he stepped up and knocked down two back-to-back.”