Hurricanes Fail to Close Out Virginia Tech, Lose 86-85

Blacksburg, VA – “Offense sells tickets, defense wins games, rebounding wins championships,” is a quote from the late Pat Summitt that’s still commonly used in basketball. Although the audience was far from a sellout crowd, we won’t be discussing ticket sales here. Instead, we’ll focus more on the latter parts from that quote as the Miami Hurricanes couldn’t get the job done yet again as they fail on defense and rebounding against the Virginia Tech Hokies.

Both teams battle each other out

The 1st half was neck and neck, featuring constant lead changes and ties. UM’s battle in the paint was quite noticeable as they shot 75% from inside the arc. Miami quickly converted on 8 of their first 11 shots to tie the game at 18 with 12:44 to go. On Virginia Tech’s end, they made four of their first five three-point jumpers to take a 23-18 lead with 11:38 remaining. Matthew Cleveland, the team’s leading scorer for the 4th consecutive game with 21 points, made a three-point jumper at the 3:22 mark to give the Canes their biggest lead of the half, making it 38-32. In the blink of an eye, the Hokies scored on their next four basket attempts, and we had ourselves a 40-39 game at halftime.

Transition 🪣s

Watch: @accnetwork pic.twitter.com/d8uh9ejMyC

— Canes Men’s Basketball (@CanesHoops) January 4, 2025

Canes’ inability to finish games

The second half was on pace with the first. However, the Hurricanes found themselves with the game’s largest lead at 66-59. UM went on to have a couple more seven-point leads over the next few minutes, but Virginia Tech would not give up without a fight. They made four shot attempts in a row plus a pair of free throw shots over the span of two minutes tying the game at 74 with 5:29 remaining. However, the Canes did temporarily come back to life. The ESPN win probability with an 82-76 UM lead at 3:17 was 87.7 percent! The defensive miscues for Miami couldn’t have come at a worse time. They gave up three offensive rebounds in a row in the last minute of play. The ball couldn’t have gone in better hands for Virginia Tech. Mylyjael Poteat (career-best 25 points) scored a jumper plus an and-one with 2.7 seconds left to win the game.

1️⃣8️⃣ points for Matthew

2H 3:45 | Miami 79, VT 76 pic.twitter.com/L1wZ9N3CTW

— Canes Men’s Basketball (@CanesHoops) January 4, 2025

Freshman class of the future

It’s presumably safe to say (pending any miracle turnarounds) that the Hurricanes won’t be receiving an invitation this year to participate in the March Madness tournament. However, we should pay attention to their future. Freshman players Jalil Bethea, Divine Ugochukwu, Isaiah Johnson-Arigu, and Austin Swartz combined for 33 of UM’s points. Bethea led the quartet with 15 points on 6/9 FG attempts, with 3/4 coming from outside the arc. Ugochukwu led the team in assists with seven as he looked more comfortable in his starting role. Johnson-Arigu only played for nine minutes but did score on his lone basket attempt. Swartz led the bench in scoring with 12 points, going 5/7 on FG attempts, including 2/3 from downtown.

27 combined points from the freshman class 💪

2H 9:17 | Miami 68, VT 63 pic.twitter.com/erHib7ZdsJ

— Canes Men’s Basketball (@CanesHoops) January 4, 2025

The road ahead

Although the 4-10 (0-3) Hurricanes just gave up a four-game winning streak against Virginia Tech dating back to 2022, they will look to break their current streak of 16 losses in a row to Power 4 opponents as they host in-state rivals, the 10-4 (1-2) Florida State Seminoles this Wednesday at 7 pm at the Watsco Center.