Miami Edges Boston College for First ACC Win

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — (AP)Durand Scott scored 19 points to lead Miami to its first Atlantic Coast Conference win of the season, beating Boston College 72-71 on Saturday night.

Miami (12-5, 1-2) snapped a two-game skid after dropping ACC road games at Duke and Clemson, and improved to 8-0 at home this season and 6-1 in ACC home openers with the win over Boston College (13-5, 3-1).

Trailing 68-67 with 20.9 seconds left, Boston College had a chance to take the lead. But Miami backup center Julian Gamble blocked Reggie Jackson’s drive. Miami’s Garrius Adams then made two free throws for a 70-67 lead.

To avoid a potential tying 3-pointer, Miami put Jackson on the line with 4.1 seconds left. He made one of two, and Miami’s Reggie Johnson grabbed the rebound and made two free throws to make it 72-68.

Jackson made a largely inconsequential 3-pointer at the buzzer to close the scoring.

Adrian Thomas had 13 points for Miami, and Adams added 12.

For BC, Jackson led the way with 19, and Joe Trapani had 14. Corey Raji and Josh Southern each added 13.

Tonight’s Starters
Starting for Miami tonight was Durand Scott, Malcolm Grant, Garrius Adams, Erik Swoope and Reggie Johnson. With this evening’s win, the Hurricanes are 3-0 with this starting five.

With the win tonight Miami…

• Improves to 12-5 on the year.
• Improves to 6-1 in ACC home openers.
• Extends its home winning steak to eight games.
• Improves its record to 4-2 over last six against BC and 12-24 all-time versus the Eagles.
• Earns its first ACC win this season.

Great Scott
Sophomore guard Durand Scott scored a team-high 19 points for his eighth-straight game in double figures, 14th this season and 30th of his career. He converted 7-of-15 from the field, a perfect 2-of-2 from downtown and 3-for-3 from the charity stripe.Scott added seven rebounds and three assists (with zero turnovers) to lead the `Canes to victory.

From Downtown, Over and Over Again
With Adrian Thomas‘ three pointer with 13:46 left in the first half, Miami has now made a three-pointer in 277-straight games. Thomas finished with 13 points — his seventh double-figure scoring performance of the season — and went 3-of-7 from long range. He has hit a three in 11 of the last 12 games and in 61 of his last 69, hitting three-plus treys eight times this season and 25 times over his career. His 150 career 3s rank ninth most in UM history and third most among active ACC players.

Solid Defense
Miami had a season-high 10 steals, leading to 19 points off of turnovers, while just committing eight turnovers to tie a season low. The Hurricanes also kept the Eagles below their season averages in field goal percentage, points, three-point field goal percentage, three-pointers, assists and steals.

Julian Gamble posted a season- and game-high three blocks — including a key block on a Reggie Jackson layup with 13 seconds remaining in the game with a 68-67 UM lead.

Stepping Up
Sophomore Garrius Adams posted his second-straight double-figure scoring game, following up a season-high 14 points at Clemson with 12 points tonight — his third-highest total of the season. Although he was hitting just 59.5 percent from the charity stripeentering the game, he converted all four free throws versus BC — hitting a pair to tie the game at 41-all with 17 minutes to go in the game and then knocking down another two free throws to extend Miami’s lead to 70-67 with eight seconds remaining in the game.

The Hurricanes shot a season-best 93.3 percent from the line, hitting their first nine free throws and finishing 14-of-15 from the line.

In addition, while sharing some of the load at point guard, Adams has gone three straight games without a turnover, his only three games of the season without a turnover.

Balanced Play
Eight of the nine Hurricanes who saw the court tonight contributed to the team’s 72 points.

Reggie on the Boards
Sophomore Center Reggie Johnson, who is third in the ACC with 9.7 rebounds per game grabbed nine more tonight, despite spending a good portion of the first half on the bench due to foul trouble. Johnson had five boards within the first five minutes of the game, but picked up his second foul to stop his momentum.