Miami 54, No. 18 Virginia 48 (OT): ‘Meet Bruce Brown, super-freshman’

With his Miami Hurricanes down 48-47 and the overtime clock ticking down — under 30-seconds remain — freshman Bruce Brown, with ice in his veins, gathered beyond the arc and launched a nail-in-the-coffin three to bury the No. 18 Virginia Cavaliers six feet deep in their own domain.

Brown uncharacteristically went the entire game without an assist, however, his heroic trey and 9-for-10 shooting from the charity stripe is more than enough to consider tonight’s battle a success. He finished with 14 points.

Give the boys credit. After seeing the buzzer-beater that wasn’t — a Davon Reed 30-ft+ chuck that hit off the backboard and through the hoop — and after all the ticky-tacky calls from a group of refs who simply couldn’t take the whistle out their mouth, the Hurricanes never laid down and died.

And, Coach Jim Larranaga’s squad prevailed yet again without Ja’Quan Newton, too. That’s a 3-0 record sans Newton. Not a true point guard in the lineup for Miami (with or without Quan) but Anthony “John Stockten” Lawrence Jr. notched his second-straight 5-assist game.

That’s called stepping up. Don’t forget, Miami had a quick two-day turn around to prepare for this game.

Another (relatively) monstrous 10 point—11 rebound game for Kamari Murphy put the cherry on top in sending UVA to its 4th straight loss.

This game was far from pretty. The second half began with Miami holding a 20-19 lead — you’d think the ‘Canes were about to kick a game-tying extra point rather than kick off a period that proved equally boring and sloppy for both players and refs.

There were 16 assists total between both squads ... and 25 turnovers (15 charged to The U).

I don’t want to get too much into the referring tonight — But, simply put: It was bad and not good. See Commander Cam’s twitter feed if you want to relive Monday’s ref-happy game with searing frustration.

Why, exactly, did UVA come into this game with a No. 18 ranking in tow? Considering both the Cavaliers and ‘Canes came into Monday’s matchup with identical 18-8 records (8-6 ACC), it’s fair to say Miami is being nationally disrespected by polls that have shown a reasonable proclivity toward ACC teams.

Regardless, after Miami’s 54-48 overtime victory in Charlottesville, there’s no arguing the SoFlo school’s place amongst the ACC Elite. The Canes now hold 19 wins with three to go, including nine conference victories in college basketball’s most powerful conference.

That’s it.

Revenge Game next.

The No. 10 Dookies are coming to the Wat on Saturday. Gear up.

P.S. COACH L IS TOO LIT