Canes Hoops: Miami Outlasts Hokies in Triple OT

A marathon deep into Wednesday night would decide a thrilling duel between the Miami Hurricanes and the Virginia Tech Hokies at the Cassell Coliseum. With fans up late to see the conclusion, and excused bodies flying over the court, UM left the Commonwealth of Virginia as victors of a 102-95 decision.

It is the first time since the end of the 2017-18 regular season that Miami (14-12, 6-10 ACC) has claimed more than three consecutive wins in conference play, showcasing their newfound momentum. Jim Larrañaga’s team also earned the season sweep over the Hokies after a Jan. 28 win against VT, and reached the 100-point mark for the first time since scoring 105 in a win over Mississippi State on Nov. 19, 2015.

Down three points in what appeared at the moment to be very late, Kameron McGusty’s and-one play would tie the game at 77 with five seconds remaining in regulation to summon overtime. Down a possession late in the first overtime period, Isaiah Wong connected on a mid-range jump shot to equal the score at 84 each, and again down two late in double overtime, Wong made another contested jumper to make it 90-90 and force a third overtime for the sole occurrence in UM’s history.

The extended game made it physically difficult for players. More shots from range were visibly missed as the contest dragged out, and the Canes failed to make free throw shots for the first time Wednesday during this stretch.

Miami out-rebounded VT 55-45 and outshot the Hokies 41.8-36% while going 29-32 from the charity stripe.

Wong continued his best stretch of basketball with a game-high 27 points, his forth straight game as a leading scorer. Chris Lykes scored 23 points even while missing key portions of action late due to foul trouble. McGusty logged 21 points, Keith Stone scored 12 and had a career-high 18 rebounds for his first UM double-double, and Rodney Miller provided 10 points.

Tyrece Radford had a team-high 26 points for VT as well as 10 rebounds. Landers Nolley had 18 points and 11 rebounds while Jalen Cone joined the duo in double-figures with 20 points.

In a first half of runs, UM took a quick 13-4 lead just over five minutes into the contest. The Hokies responded to go on top 20-17 at the 9:15 mark of the period, before Miami would go up by as much as 12 points in the closing minute of the half and entered halftime up 41-32.

The second half featured many stints early when Virginia Tech looked to be slowly grabbing momentum and the attention of the crowd, only to be quickly answered by the Hurricanes.

The Hurricanes looked to be in the drivers seat against Virginia Tech, leading 59-51 as the contest entered the de-facto fourth quarter. UM squandered an eight-point lead at the 10-minute mark via a 15-2 Hokie run. It took a late 14-7 run for the Canes in regulation to force OT, and a 7-3 sequence in the first OT to force a second before finally prevailing in the third.

Miami continues their road trip with games at Notre Dame 6 p.m. Sunday and at Georgia Tech at 8 p.m. on Feb. 29, before returning home to play Virginia on March 4. All games listed can be seen on ACC Network.