Miami Hurricanes stay atop ACC standings with 73-62 road win against Georgia Tech
The Miami Hurricanes continued to build a case for a Top 25 ranking with a 73-62 road win against Georgia Tech on Saturday afternoon.
UM improved to 16-5 overall and remained atop the ACC standings at 8-2. The Canes have won 12 of 14 games since late November, their only blemishes a pair of one-point losses to Florida State.
“Again, one heck of a college basketball game,” UM coach Jim Larranaga said. “We played terrific for a long stretch and then Georgia Tech stormed back and did a great job of forcing turnovers. We built a great lead to start the second half and were able to hang on.”
Kameron McGusty led the Hurricanes with 20 points and was 8-of-8 from the free throw line. Jordan Miller had 13 points and eight rebounds, and Charlie Moore chipped in 12 points, four rebounds, three assists, and four steals before fouling out with 3:14 to go.
Larranaga made a point to praise freshman backup point guard Bensley Joseph, who wound up playing 22 minutes because Moore picked up a pair of early fouls and then fouled out at a critical part of the game after Tech went on a 12-2 run. Joseph stepped up with five points, five rebounds and two assists.
Going into the game Larranaga warned his players that Georgia Tech thrives on a variety of zone defenses that result in turnovers. The Yellow Jackets forced FSU into 17 turnovers and beat the Seminoles mid-week, and they were pesky again in the early going against Miami.
The Hurricanes averaged 8.4 turnovers per game before Saturday but turned the ball over six times in the first 10 minutes against Georgia Tech and 10 times in the first half. Miami finished the day with 16 turnovers, the first time all season the Hurricanes’ opponent forced more turnovers than they did.
“They’re the best team in the league at looking for steals,” Larranaga said of the Yellow Jackets. “They actually play your passing lanes. They’re very, very active defensively so we’re not surprised by our number of turnovers. You’ve got to give their defense a lot of credit.”
A pair of Jordan Miller dunks put the Hurricanes ahead 9-3 in the opening minutes and the Yellow Jackets struggled to score, missing eight of their first nine shots. Tech took a brief lead at 13-12, but the Hurricanes got back in front and were ahead by eight at halftime largely due to sixth-year senior McGusty.
McGusty made four consecutive free throws and back-to-back three pointers to give UM a 36-28 lead at the break. Watching from the stands at McCamish Pavilion was Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young, who was McGusty’s teammate at the University of Oklahoma before McGusty transferred to Miami. The two remain good friends.
McGusty’s hot streak continued after intermission. He made a pair of layups to open a 10-point lead for the Hurricanes and they never looked back.
Sam Waardenburg, who played only seven minutes in the first half after picking up two early fouls, made it a 15-point UM lead with a three pointer with 16 minutes to go.
Then it was time for the Charlie Moore Show. The Miami point guard, coming off his half-court game-winning shot against Virginia Tech, went on a seven-point scoring run with a layup, a steal that led to a three-pointer, and another layup to push UM’s lead to 18 points with nine minutes to go.
The lead got as big as 19 points on an Anthony Walker three-pointer. But the Hurricanes had to work for the victory. Tech started hitting shots, Miami turned the ball over three times over a three-minute stretch and the Yellow Jackets went on their 12-2 run and got within 10.
Miami’s veteran-laden team showed poise down the stretch, as it has all season, and made late free-throws to preserve the win.
The Hurricanes play at home Wednesday at 7 p.m. against Notre Dame, which is in third place in the ACC standings at 13-6 overall and 6-2 in the league.