No ACC Title for Miami Basketball Today, Lose to VT 77-62

With so much at stake, the Miami Hurricanes could not afford a sub par performance if they wanted a share of the ACC Crown.

Facing a Virginia Tech team that came in on fire winning 5 straight, this promised to be no walk in the park, especially given the game was in Blacksburg.

UM just didn't have it today.

Facing a fired up Hokies team, an avalanche of threes, and some tough calls against them, Miami dropped their last regular season contest.

Early on the game was frenzied.  VT got off to a quick 3 point advantage thanks to a couple of transition buckets, including a dunk by Zach Leday that had the home crowd excited.

The 'Canes struggled to find early offense and had to take a few rushed shots deep in the shot clock.

When they did get on the break, they missed a few opportunities, including a so so call on a charge against Davon Reed that wiped out a bucket.

Miami also had 6 turnovers in the game's opening 10 minutes, against a physical Hokies team.

Before you knew it, it was 19-10 VT.

After a Sheldon McClellan bucket cut into the lead, UM got sloppy with the ball again, and the result was a circus shot that resulted in an and one for Seth Allen.

With 5 minutes left in the half, they were down 11.

A triple by Justin Robinson kept the margin double digits moments later.

And at the intermission it was 32-21 VT.

UM was a horrendous 1-10 from deep in the opening 20 minutes.

The second half started with Tech continuing to dictate the pace with their zone.

Miami was being out hustled as well,  evidenced by numerous blocked shots and deflections by the Hokies.

With 15 minutes left, this was looked grim, but McClellan sparked a comeback with some outstanding offense.

Back to back buckets, including a long triple, trimmed the lead down to 6.

However Seth Allen answered with a three and a medium range jumper, and the lead again swelled to 14.

Davon Reed tried to bring UM back with a personal 6-0 run of his own, but the 'Canes never could quite get things going consistently on either end of the court.

The full court press helped them get back in the game, at least mentally, but a very controversial flagrant 1 on Kamari Murphy was a critical blow with 9 minutes to go.

The only thing worse than the call was the confusion after as the officials could not decide how many FTs to award VT.

It ended up being a critical moment.

And the two more VT triples that followed were the nails in the coffin.

The Hokies and their home crowd erupted.

It just wasn't Miami's day.

Fortunately for the 'Canes, their next game will be at a neutral site.

Next Up:  The ACC Tourney in Washington D.C.   Opponent TBA.