Tre Donaldson’s career-high 32 points lift UM to 67-66 win over Virginia Tech
Word is getting out about the resurgent University of Miami men’s basketball team. A season-high crowd of 7,639 showed up at the Watsco Center Tuesday night and was treated to a thrilling 67-66 Hurricanes win over Virginia Tech.
Senior point guard Tre Donaldson carried the team on his back with a career-high 32 points, including the final 15 points of the night.
Because of his heroics, the Hurricanes improved to 21-5 and 10-3 in the ACC, which puts them one step closer to earning an NCAA Tournament berth.
Donaldson sank a three-point basket to shrink the Hokies’ lead to two with six minutes to go, then drove the baseline and laid the ball in to tie it up at 59 and eject the fans from their seats.
He gave Miami the lead, Virginia Tech went on a 6-0 run to go up by four with two minutes to go, and then Donaldson did what he has done so often during his career. He took control and had the ball in his hands when it mattered most.
He went on a 6-0 run of his own, including a clutch three-pointer, to even the score and made a free throw with 12 seconds left to seal the win.
“Tre’s been around since the Reagan administration, has been a part of a lot of really good basketball,” Virginia Tech coach Mike Young said of 22-year-old Donaldson. “He’s good. He’s old and big and strong. He gets fouled. We don’t have a great matchup for him. I thought we fought, but Tre had a good ball game.”
Donaldson, who transferred to Miami this season from the University of Michigan and played at Auburn before that, attributed his performance to his desire to win for his team. He had some calf soreness before the game, but nobody could tell as he battled from wire to wire.
“I was a little banged up, but I just wanted to win it for my team,” he said. “I wanted it for my coaches. The will to win is the biggest thing. Whatever it took, if it was me making a shot or making a play for my teammates, the ball just fell for me tonight. I just thank God and continue to put in the work and let these guys trust me and me trust them.”
Donaldson added that the key was keeping his composure in the tense moments.
“I’m very emotional, so I try to stay cool, calm, collected,” he said. “Staying positive. It’s easy to get down in tough games like that when we just can’t find a way to get over five points, but we found a way. I tried to instill confidence in my guys and find a way to win.”
Center Ernest Udeh, Jr., said he was as impressed with Donaldson’s performance as any fan, but he was not surprised.
“I was telling the guys, `Federal’ [slang for intense, high-stakes situation], `unconscious,’’’ Udeh said, smiling. “I’m sitting there seeing his shots go in and for me, it’s not like, `Oh, wow!’ It’s Tre. I know what he’s capable of and I’m blessed to call him my point guard night in and night out.”
Miami coach Jai Lucas echoed the praise for Donaldson.
“He’s done it time and time again,” Lucas said. “It wasn’t shocking. It was needed and he found a way. He willed us to it. That’s what senior guards do who have been in big moments, and why you bet on guys’ pedigrees, for moments like this.”
Donaldson was needed even more than usual on Tuesday because Malik Reneau, Miami’s leading scorer, was struggling with a severe headache all day and night. He played the first half but left the game early in the second half and returned for the final minutes but was not himself.
He finished with nine points and six rebounds in 24 minutes.
“I think it was a migraine, something going on that kind of had him a little blurry and he couldn’t deal with it,” Lucas said of Reneau. “We tried to get him back out there, and he just kind of willed himself late in the game.”
Other than Donaldson, the only other Hurricane who scored in double digits was freshman Dante Allen, who went 4-of-10 for 10 points with five rebounds. Udeh was Miami’s leading rebounder with nine.
The Hurricanes shot only 25 percent from beyond the arc, making four of 16 attempts, but that proved enough. UM also outscored the Hokies 9-2 from the free throw line, keeping with their strategy of getting more points from the line than the opponent attempts (Virginia Tech was 2-of-3 from the line for the game and Miami was 9-of-13).
The Hurricanes came into the game aiming to strengthen their NCAA Tournament resume after winning five of their previous six games, including back-to-back victories over then-No. 11 North Carolina and NC State in a thriller that came down to the final seconds.
“Having the experience I have, mid-February this is where you want to be,” Donaldson said. “That’s something coach preached to us. They’re not all going to be pretty, but in late or mid-February, you just have to find a way to win. That’s all that matters.
“We’re happy, but we’re not satisfied. We have a chip on our shoulders. “We’re just going to continue to push to get better as a team and prove everybody wrong and go hunting.”
Virginia Tech dropped to 17-10 and 6-8 in the ACC but Lucas said the Hokies are far better than their record and have been unlucky.
“They’re a tournament team,” Lucas said. “They’re extremely well coached. They’ve just had bad luck. I had to tell [Young] `I’m sorry,’ after the game because it’s like the fourth loss for them under three seconds. If not, they’d be right up there with us in the top of the league.”
On Tuesday night, there the Hokies were again, in position to win with 3.8 seconds left on the clock. But they fell short.
“We fought like crazy,” Young said. “I was talking to [former UM coach] Jim Larranaga for a long time earlier in the day and it’s like every game we have with the Hurricanes is right down to the wire, hard-nosed, two teams fighting their tails off.”
The Hurricanes hit the road next for a Saturday game against Virginia followed by a Feb. 24 road game at Florida State.
This story was originally published February 17, 2026 at 11:36 PM.