The bright lights of Madison Square Garden set the stage for a showdown between the No. 1 ranked Tennessee Volunteers and the Miami Hurricanes in the Jimmy V Classic. For Tennessee, it was an opportunity to remain undefeated, while Miami sought a monumental upset and a chance to end a six-game losing skid. Both teams had the chance to shine on basketball’s biggest stage, but under the pressure, only one team rose to the occasion—Tennessee. The Volunteers came out on top 75-62.
As the official threw the ball up in the air for the opening tip, Tennessee claimed the first possession and executed quickly. 6-foot-5 senior guard Chaz Lanier hit a quick three-pointer to open up the scoring. Lanier, who was recently named USBWA Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week, torched the Hurricanes all night. He finished his night with 22 points, going 4-of-7 from long-range.
The first 12:03 minutes of the game featured each team trading buckets, rallying the score up to 25-24 with 7:57 left to go in the half. However, Miami collapsed and did not score a single point the rest of the half.
“We were awful. It was like we never practiced before … because it didn’t look like our team, everybody was shooting off the bounce. There’s no passing, no assists, bad shot selection, and when you do that it’s really demoralizing because it’s hard to play good defense when everybody’s mad that we took such a bad shot,” Miami head coach Jim Larrañaga said about UM’s late first-half woes.
Going into the break, the score was 38-25 in favor of Tennessee.
The second half started with a Lynn Kidd hook shot to move the game to 38-27. Kidd would end the night being Miami’s leading scorer, scoring 14 points, 12 of them coming in the second half.
Scoring the first points of the half didn’t provide much momentum for the Hurricanes, as at the 10:20 mark, they were down 55-39 with 10:57 left to play as freshman guard Austin Swartz knocked down a three-pointer.
Swartz’s three-pointer was Miami’s first in over 18 minutes, with its last one coming at the 9:01 mark of the first half.
Swartz’s shot lit a little flame within the team as on one of the next offensive possessions, freshman Divine Ugochukwu drove hard to the basket for a made and-one layup Ugochukwu repeated that same play on the following possession.
Miami played hard-nosed basketball on both sides of the floor for the next few minutes, hitting and blocking shots. They cut the Volunteers’ lead to 56-63 as Ugochukwu was sent to the foul line, hitting one of his two attempts with 5:39 left in the game. During this stretch, the Miami bench started dancing—prematurely, it turns out.
It was all Tennessee from here on out. Lanier continued his great showing with fellow guard Zakai Zeigler helping him out. Zeigler ended his hometown performance with 13 points.
Tennessee went on to soundly defeat Miami. Miami’s disastrous season continues, as it has now lost seven straight games.
Larrañaga mentioned after the game that he believes his team’s defense and rebounding are getting better.
“Eventually the winning will follow.” Larrañaga said. “You have to follow the process. You’re not good at something, get better.”
The Hurricanes look to regroup as they return home to play the Presbyterian Blue Hose on Sunday at 2 p.m.