Reneau, Donaldson spark comeback as Hurricanes rally to beat Pitt in ACC opener
Malik Reneau and Tre Donaldson continue to prove how valuable their additions have been to the Miami Hurricanes.
Reneau, the Hurricanes’ leading scorer, spent nearly the final eight minutes of the first half on Miami’s bench on Tuesday night after picking up his third foul.
Without their leading scorer, the Hurricanes looked out of sorts during the majority of a 25-2 run by visiting Pittsburgh.
Reneau and Donaldson didn’t let that negative stretch sour Miami’s Atlantic Coast Conference opener as each scored 17 points in the second half and helped the Hurricanes rally for a 76-69 victory over the Panthers at the Watsco Center.
“I had a bad little stretch where I gave up the offensive rebound and put back 2 and then gave a foul unnecessary,” Reneau said. “After those three fouls, we were all crumbled, but we came back down the stretch. We just trusted in our defense and the guys around us. We just made it one possession at a time and we slowly cut the lead down and allowed us to take the next step and get the win.”
Reneau, who transferred from Indiana and played some of his high school career at Mater Academy in Hialeah Gardens, scored a season-high 28 points and went 10-for-10 from the free throw line.
Donaldson, who previously played at Auburn and Michigan before transferring to Miami, scored 19 points, including 11 over the final five minutes and 11 seconds of the game.
The Hurricanes struggled shooting from 3-point range overall, shooting just 1 for 11 in the first half and made only two of their first 19 attempts from beyond the arc.
But after Pitt cut Miami’s lead to 64-63 with 4:46 left, Donaldson’s three-pointer helped the Hurricanes (12-2, 1-0 ACC) begin to pull away and seal their seventh consecutive win.
“That’s why those guys are here, and that’s why you go find guys in the portal that have played big time basketball in big environments,” Lucas said. “They have some kind of substance about them in games like this where they’re not going to be afraid.”
Reneau’s three-pointer with 38.6 seconds left helped Miami take a 74-65 lead and seal the outcome. The Hurricanes adjusted to a zone defense, which frustrated Pitt into shooting 1 for 13 from 3-point range, and 36.7 percent from the field overall, in the second half.
Miami, which went 7-24 last season, didn’t win its first conference game last season until Feb. 1.
“Our guys battled after a first half that was a little bit rocky,” Miami coach Jai Lucas said. “I thought we started good and then got in some foul trouble and we let our offense affect us in the first half. We were missing a lot of buckets.”
Reneau committed two quick fouls, which turned into four of the first six points of Pitt’s late first half run.
Tru Washington, who had 11 points and five rebounds, hit a put-back score at the first half buzzer to cut Pitt’s lead to 43-33 at the break.
“His tip-in was huge,” Lucas said. “It changed us and changed the momentum.”
Indeed, the momentum carried over as Washington’s triple with 16:19 left in the second half cut Pitt’s lead to 45-42 and was part of a 13-0 Miami surge, which helped the Hurricanes retake the lead on a Shelton Henderson drive to the basket with 14:18 left.
Henderson had 10 points and eight rebounds. Reneau totaled eight rebounds and Ernest Udeh Jr. had a game-high 11 boards as the Hurricanes once again imposed their will in the paint with a 43-28 rebounding edge.
The Hurricanes were also clutch from the free throw line, making 20 of 26 attempts while Pitt struggled, converting only 9 of 17 free throws.
Miami guard Dante Allen played for the first time since Nov. 28. He scored two points and plate 14 minutes after missing the Hurricanes’ previous five games due to injury.
