Grant's Six 3-Pointers Lead Hurricanes Past Rice

Las Vegas, Nev. (AP) – Malcolm Grant scored 25 points, highlighted by six 3-pointers, to lead Miami over Rice 73-67 on day two of the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic on Wednesday .

Grant, who missed just two shots from behind the arc, was 5 of 6 from the free throw line for the Hurricanes (9-3). He also was one point shy of a career high and snapped his streak of consecutive free throws at 33 when he missed with 4:06 left in the game.

Arsalan Kazemi led the Owls (6-5) with a career-high 26 points, and added 14 rebounds for his seventh double-double this season. Lucas Kuipers added 12 points and Tamir Jackson 11.

Durand Scott added 10 points for Miami, who tied a season high with 13 3-pointers at a season-high 56.5 percent. The Hurricanes finished 48.9 percent from the field and 72.7 percent from the line, as Reggie Johnson added 5-of-5 shooting from the charity stripe.

After Rice cut the Hurricanes’ lead to 43-41 with 13:45 left, Grant hit back-to-back 3-pointers. Rice later cut the lead to three points twice, the last at 53-50, but Miami responded with eight-straight points — including back-to-back Grant 3-pointers. Miami hit 6-of-7 free throws in the final 45 seconds to secure its second-straight win and its seventh in the last eight games.

Tonight’s Starters
Starting for Miami this afternoon was Durand Scott, Malcolm Grant, Garrius Adams, Erik Swoope and Reggie Johnson. Swoope’s first career start marked the first career start for a Miami true freshman this season.

Swoope opened the game by getting Miami possession on the tip and then dunked to give UM the early 2-0 lead. He opened the second half with a steal and a dunk to extend Miami’s lead to 36-28. He finished with a season-high tying four points, a season-high two steals, one rebound and one assist in a season-high 14 minutes.

20-20 Vision
Malcolm Grant registered his fourth 20-point game of the season, finishing with 25 points — just one point shy of his career-high, with a career-high tying six three-pointers for the second time this season (last at Florida Gulf Coast, 11/27/10). He converted 6-of-8 shots (.750) from long range and added a team-high tying three assists.

From the Line
Malcolm Grant went 5-of-6 from the line, snapping his consecutive free throws made streak at 33 after missing a free throw with 4:06 remaining in the game. He last missed a free throw five games ago on Dec. 4 when he went 13-of-14 from the charity stripe in the win over West Virginia.

Reggie Johnson went 5-of-5 from the line versus Rice and ha made nine-straight free throws dating back to that Dec. 4 game versus West Virginia.

Thomas for Three
Adrian Thomas knocked down three three-pointers in the win over Rice for his seventh game of the season with three-plus threes and the 24th time in his career. He has hit a three in seven-straight games and now has a trey in 54 of his last 60 games. His 142 career threes rank ninth most in Miami program history and trail Johnny Hemsley (1996-2000) in eighth place by 22 treys.

As a team, the Hurricanes bounced back from tying a season low of just three three-pointers in Tuesday’s win over Oral Roberts by draining a season-high tying 13 threes at a season-high 56.5 percent clip. Those 13 3s are just two shy of the school record 15 that was originally set in 1993 versus Georgetown and tied last season versus South Carolina State.

Thomas (3-7), Malcolm Grant (6-8), Durand Scott (2-3) and Garrius Adams (2-5) each hit threes for the Hurricanes this afternoon.

Hurricane Warning
Miami has now defeated 30 of its last 33 non-conference opponents.