The No.3 seed Miami Hurricanes defeated the No.6 seed Louisville Cardinals 78-73 in the ACC tournament quarterfinals on Thursday afternoon in Charlotte, N.C.
Malik Reneau led the way for the Canes, scoring 24 points, 18 of which came in the second half. Tru Washington scored 17 off the bench and Tre Donaldson scored 14 while adding six assists.
The win not only advanced the Hurricanes to the ACC semifinals for the sixth time in school history, but avenged its senior night loss to Louisville on March 7.
Miami started out the game with a 13-10 lead after multiple Donaldson layups. But, the Cardinals responded with a 10-0 run led by star guard Ryan Conwell, who burnt Miami several times for easy paint points.
UM went on a run of its own thanks to strong drives from Shelton Henderson and Donaldson to take a 24-23 lead.
The first half continued to be a back and forth affair as Louisville went into halftime with a 38-37 lead, led by 14 early points from guard J’Vonne Hadley. Moreover, Louisville was able to get Malik Reneau in foul trouble late in the first half, complicating Miami’s gameplan.
But what makes this Hurricane side special is their ability to bounce back, and to start the second half, it was all Miami.
The Canes went on a 10-0 run capped off by an emphatic Dante Allen and-one dunk in transition to take an eight point lead with just over 17 minutes remaining.
Over the next ten minutes the scoring would slow from both sides as UM led 61-54 with 7:53 left in the game. The Cardinals then responded with a burst of their own to cut the lead to 62-59.
However, Miami remained confident despite the game getting close — Reneau was getting to his spots, and Washington did an exceptional job creating his shots as well.
Louisville cut the lead down to a point before Reneau and Washington converted on back-to-back possessions to extend out to a 69-64 lead.
Louisville was able to respond once again with consecutive buckets of their own to cut the lead to 69-68 with 1:23 left.
Miami head coach Jai Lucas drew up a clever play out of a timeout that led to an easy Reneau layup off of a great find from Donaldson.
Washington then stole the Louisville inbounds pass and converted two free throws to retake a five point advantage.
The Hurricanes maintained the lead the rest of the way, ending the game with a highlight slam from Henderson.
Coach Lucas was proud of his players for making the necessary adjustments from the recent loss less than a week ago.
“I thought we were too soft on the ball in the first game,” said Lucas. “We gave them too much space, and they were able to get everything they wanted from long distance, so a big part of our defensive gameplan was ball pressure.”
The gameplan worked well for UM, as No. 24 Louisville shot just 6-24 from three point range compared to 12-24 in the previous matchup.
“I felt that was the difference, the threes they were able to get off in the first game compared to this game,” Lucas said.
Miami (25-7) will face Virginia (28-4) in the semifinals on Friday at 7 p.m.
The Hurricanes fell 83-86 to the Cavaliers in Charlottesville on Feb. 21, and look to get revenge tomorrow.