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Miami beats Boston College in thrilling fashion, 60-59; Sits alone atop the ACC.

Miami and Boston College traded blows, but the Hurricanes were able to get out alive and defeat the Eagles, 60-59, for a fifth straight time in the series.

Michael Ivins-USA TODAY Sports

After eating all of my nails and shaking from head to toe, the game finally ended and the Miami Hurricanes were able to put-off the Boston College Eagles in a thrilling fashion and keep the winning streak, and perfect conference record intact!

The first half was up and down.

Miami and Boston College both came out of the gates ready to pounce on each other. After a Joe Rahon three-pointer, the score was 17-16 in favor of the Eagles with a little over 14 to play in the half. After that, the scoring sputtered.

Miami went on a five-minute drought that ended with a Shane Larkin layup with 6:30 left in the half. Luckily for Miami, their great defense held up for the team (what else is new?) and the score was only 19-18 after that bucket. The first half ended with Larkin showing signs of how good he could be with a beautiful pass to Raphael Akpejiori that resulted in an easy dunk. He then followed that with a fantastic pull-up three from the top of the key.

For most of the half, the 'Canes did a great job containing Ryan Anderson from getting easy buckets, except for a two-minute lapse to close the half. The backcourt, on the other hand, had a handful. Lonnie Jackson, Olivier Hanlan, and Joe Rahon had 20 of the team's 28 first half points, while shooting 8-14 from the floor and knocking down four from beyond the arc.

It's only fitting that on a night where ABC Family is showing "Remember the Titans" that this game would be an absolute fight.

Much like the first-half Olivier Hanlan kicked off the second half with penetration that resulted in an and-1, but after that the Hurricanes locked down for a spurt. Julian Gamble lead a 10-0 run for Miami that gave them a 36-31 lead. Boston College quickly countered with a 9-0 run to retain the lead. From that point forward, it was an uphill battle for Miami.

Scoring went back-and-forth and Miami retained the lead 56-55 with 1:39 to go on a Kenny Kadji offensive rebound putback. Then it got crazy.

After the Kadji make, BC responded with two free-throws by Lonnie Jackson, who finished the game with 16 points. Durand Scott, who fouled out (more on that), committed a terrible foul (also, more on that), and gave Lonnie Jackson an opportunity to extend the lead on a one-in-one, but Jackson couldn't capitalize and missed the first of the two free-throws. Scott skied high for the rebound and drove hard to the basket and got hit and went to the line for two. He knocked down both free throws to give Miami the lead, yet again. After a Steve Donahue timeout, Joe Rohan got called for an offensive foul on the often-mentioned, Scott. He, again, went to the line and knocked down two more clutch free-throws. The 'Canes had a 3-point lead with ten seconds left in the game. Boston College had one last chance, and we're bailed out by a BAD foul by Durand Scott that also cost him his disqualification with five fouls.

With .5 seconds left to go, Olivier Hanlan steps up to the line with the chance to tie the game.

Hanlan makes the first, Hanlan makes the second, Hanlan goes short on the third and the Miami Hurricanes pulled off an incredible victory on the road and improve to 4-0 in the ACC.

Player of the game: Durand Scott gets the nod. Yes, he made some bad fouls down the stretch, but he also came up HUGE with four clutch free-throws and finished the game with 15 points despite getting hurt twice.

The Good: Composure. The 'Canes didn't do one thing spectacular but they did enough good things to come out with a win. Experience definitely showed up tonight as Boston College was ready to go blow for blow with Miami.

The Bad: Perimeter defense. Lonnie Jackson and Olivier Hanlan had a field day and seemed to get their shot whenever they pleased. Ryan Anderson got shut down tonight, but the guard play almost cost Miami they game, and quite frankly, it should have.

The Ugly: Never foul a three-point shooter! Come on Durand! It didn't cost the 'Canes the game, but Scott's late-game foul was ugly and it should never happen again.

Next Game: The Hurricanes try to get to 5-0 in conference play as they host the Duke Blue Devils at the Bank United Center, Wednesday, January 23rd at 7:00 PM EST on ESPN.

Miami (FL) Hurricanes Miami (FL)

Name
FG 3Pt FT Off Reb Ast TO Stl Blk PF Pts
S. Larkin
2-8 1-2 2-2 1 6 5 2 2 0 4 7
T. McKinney Jones
3-6 2-3 3-6 0 3 1 0 0 0 2 11
K. Kadji
6-12 2-4 0-2 3 5 0 3 0 1 1 14
D. Scott
5-12 1-4 4-4 1 3 1 0 2 0 5 15
J. Gamble
3-5 0-0 0-0 2 5 0 0 0 1 3 6
E. Swoope
0-1 0-0 0-0 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0
R. Brown
1-6 1-5 0-0 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 3
T. Jekiri
0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 0
R. Akpejiori
2-3 0-0 0-0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 4
Totals 22-53 7-18 9-14 8 29 9 6 6 2 18 60
Percentages .415 .389 .643

Team Rebounds: 1


Boston College Eagles Boston Coll.

Name
FG 3Pt FT Off Reb Ast TO Stl Blk PF Pts
L. Jackson
5-9 4-8 2-2 0 3 1 1 1 0 2 16
O. Hanlan
6-10 0-3 5-10 1 4 4 3 0 0 3 17
P. Heckmann
1-6 1-4 0-0 1 5 1 2 1 0 3 3
R. Anderson
4-11 0-0 3-4 1 6 3 1 1 0 1 11
J. Rahon
3-6 2-5 0-0 0 3 2 2 0 0 3 8
D. Clifford
0-1 0-0 1-2 1 4 0 0 0 2 2 1
E. Odio
1-2 1-1 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 1 2 3
D. Rubin
0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
Totals 20-46 8-22 11-18 4 26 12 11 3 3 17 59
Percentages .435 .364 .611 Team Rebounds: 5

Game Info:

Technical fouls: None

Arena: Silvio O. Conte, Chestnut Hill, MA.