Charlie Moore’s half-court buzzer beater stuns Virginia Tech, completes Miami comeback
Charlie Moore bounced on his toes near midcourt and waited for the whistle to blow, and then he was off.
The Miami Hurricanes and Virginia Tech Hokies were tied with 1.8 seconds left Wednesday and Miami needed perfection, precision and a little bit of luck to avoid overtime. Moore, Kameron McGusty and Sam Waardenburg delivered it all for a stunning 78-75 win in Blacksburg, Virginia.
Waardenburg lined up a screen near Moore and the guard looped his way toward the ball. He went back to the three-point line and then dashed toward midcourt to get ready for his prayer. Kameron McGusty led him perfectly in stride, Moore took one dribble and heaved.
He just wanted to make sure he got off a shot and then, all of a sudden, this one felt good.
The buzzer sounded, the shot banked in and the Hurricanes swarmed Moore while he sprinted back into the tunnel.
“That,” Moore said, “was incredible.”
His path took him right past Miami’s bench and then he took U-turn back to the locker room. He pointed one finger to the sky while the crowd of 7,086 at Cassell Coliseum fell silent.
Miami, for the moment, took sole possession of first place in the Atlantic Coast Conference after its most incredible win of the year.
“I just wanted to get a shot up, get a great attempt up,” Moore said.
The Hurricanes (15-5, 7-2) blew an 11-point first half lead and rallied from six down in the final seven minutes. They shot 54.7 percent from the field and Virginia Tech (10-10, 2-7) shot 50. Miami was down 75-70 with two minutes left and shut out the Hokies the rest of the way while getting heroic moments from guards Jordan Miller, Isaiah Wong and, most of all, Moore.
It was another game decided by one possession — five of the Hurricanes’ last six have been — and Miami didn’t even get flawless execution down the stretch to pull out this win. The Hurricanes just made the plays when they mattered.
“We’ve been in so many of these games already,” coach Jim Larranaga said, “so our guys have been very, very consistently poised in the last three, four minutes of games and they’re making big play after big play.”
It started with an offensive rebound and an and-one by Miller with 1:57 left, only he missed the free throw to leave Miami down 75-72. The Hurricanes got a stop and another offensive rebound, and swung a pass out to Wong in the right corner.
The strength of this Miami team is it doesn’t need to rely on one go-to option, but Wong, the Hurricanes’ most legitimate NBA prospect, tends to have the ball in his hands in the biggest moments and he made a savvy play this time. He jab stepped and faked a shot, goaded Keve Aluma into the air and fired up a three-point attempt while the Virginia Tech forward bumped into him. The star shooting guard got to the free-throw and made all three free throws to knot the score at 75-75 with 1:09 left.
After another stop, the Hurricanes had a chance to take the lead and nearly did. McGusty slashed from the left wing and drew nearly the entire defense into the paint. The guard tried to fling a pass out to Moore, wide open on the left wing, only for the whistle to blow for a charge. With 28.9 seconds left and the shot clock off, Miami needed one more stop to, in all likelihood, force overtime.
“We were not playing our best, but we were still in the hunt,” Larranaga said, “and every chance we got we made a big play.”
The Hurricanes forced Hokies guard Hunter Cattoor into a long, errant three and Miller grabbed the rebound with a little more than a second left, taking a few dribbles and then taking timeout to give Miami a sideline inbound, just shy of midcourt, with 1.8 seconds left.
This wasn’t the plan, either, Larranaga said. He told the officials the Hurricanes were going to call timeout as soon as they got the rebound, he said, and he figured he would have about 2.5 seconds left to draw up a game-winning play from underneath the Hurricanes’ own basket. Instead, the referees didn’t grant the timeout until Miller was already dribbling near midcourt, setting up an unorthodox situation for Miami.
The play was going to be simple. Larranaga sent Wong and Miller down to either corner to force Virginia Tech to guard them, and clear out midcourt. He told Waardenburg to set a pick for Moore and implored McGusty to lead the sixth-year redshirt senior on the inbound. It got Moore a relatively open look with his left foot behind the halfcourt line and he nailed it.
“I was excited. I just ran off the court and my teammates followed me,” Moore said. “They tackled me. They had a great time.”
It was the 10th lead change of the second half and first since the 9:18 mark. It gave Moore 13 points — all five starters scored at least 12, as McGusty led the way with 19 and Miller added 18 — and the Hurricanes an 11th win in 13 games.
It’s not an unparalleled moment in Miami history — Larranaga immediately recalled former guard Ja’Quan Newton’s half-court game-winner against the then-No. 9 North Carolina Tar Heels in 2018 — but it’s another signature moment for a team quickly piling them up this season.
“It means a lot,” Moore said. “We played pretty good for the most part. Virginia Tech shot the ball tremendously well and executed tremendously well. It went down to the wire. It was a great game.”
This story was originally published January 26, 2022 at 9:13 PM.
