@CanesHoops Falls in OT to Stanford, 66-64

Miami6466Stanford

PLAYER OF THE GAME
Sheldon McClellan | Jr. | G Scored in double figures for the 31st time this season as he finished with a team-high 17 points. The Miami junior scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half.

NEW YORK (AP) – Chasson Randle hit two free throws with 3.4 seconds left in overtime, and Stanford won the second NIT title of his career, edging Miami 66-64 on Thursday.

Sheldon McClellan’s double-pumping 3-point attempt that would have won it at the buzzer wasn’t close to going in.

The short-handed Hurricanes had rallied from a 13-point second-half deficit to force the extra period and led 64-61 with less than a minute left. But Randle twice got to the line, making four straight foul shots for the victory.

The senior, who became the Cardinal’s all-time leading scorer in Tuesday’s semifinals, finished with 25 points Thursday to end his career with 2,375.

McClellan led Miami with 17 points.

POSTGAME NOTES

Game Notes

* Miami’s 25 wins are second all-time in school history, behind the 29-7 mark in 2012-13.

* Miami is 1-2 in the all-time series against Stanford.

* Head coach Jim Larrañaga has a 561-383 overall record in his 31st season as a head coach. He is 91-49 in his fourth season at the University of Miami, with a 41-29 mark in ACC play.

* Jim Larrañaga is now 1-1 in Madison Square Garden. In Larrañaga’s 31 years of coaching, he had never been the head coach of a team playing a game in Madison Square Garden, until March 31 against Temple. He played in the World’s Most Famous Arena multiple times while playing college ball for Providence, and was an assistant coach for Virginia when the Cavaliers won the NIT in 1980. Larrañaga’s final collegiate game as a Friar was played against UNC in 1971, an 86-79 loss for PC in the NIT Elite 8.

* Since 2000, only four coaches originally from the state of New York have led their team to the championship game of the NIT. In 2015, coach Jim Larrañaga is from The Bronx. In 2014, Larry Brown (Brooklyn) was the runner up with SMU. John Beilein (Burt) won the event in 2007 with West Virginia. In 2000, Matt Doherty (East Meadow) was runner up with Notre Dame.

* The Canes are 11-12 in their 11 NIT appearances.

* UM is 6-6 in the first round, 3-2 in the second round, 1-3 in the quarterfinals, 1-0 in the semifinals and 0-1 in the finals of the NIT.

* With a 25-13 mark this season at Miami, Coach Jim Larrañaga has posted four 25-win seasons as a head coach. His first was a 27-8 mark at George Mason in 2005-06, when he led the team to the NCAA Final Four, and in 2010-11 he was 27-7 with a 1-1 mark in the NCAA Tournament.  At Miami, Coach L led the Canes to a 29-7 mark in 2012-13, winning the ACC regular season and tournament, then taking UM to the NCAA Sweet 16.

* This year, Miami was 13-7 away from the BankUnited Center, with a 5-3 neutral-site record.

* Miami’s starters: Ja’Quan Newton, Sheldon McClellan, Davon Reed, Omar Sherman and Ivan Cruz Uceda.

* Miami has used 12 starting lineups this season, and every scholarship player has started at least one game.

* Sheldon McClellan is the only Hurricane to start all 38 games this season.

* Junior Tonye Jekiri has played in 104 career games for the Hurricanes in three seasons, the only Cane with 100+ UM games. Sheldon McClellan has played 106 career games, after 68 at Texas.

* Tonye Jekiri grabbed 366 rebounds this season, good for fourth in Miami’s record book for rebounds in a season, trailing No. 3 Harry Manushaw (372), No. 2 Rick Barry (448) and No. 1 Rick Barry (475).

* Angel Rodriguez, who missed the last six games of the season with an injury, dished out 126 assists this season, just shy of No. 10 on the season assists list at Miami. No. 10 Anthony Harris (2004-05) had 133, No. 9 Thomas Hocker (‘87-88) had 136.

* Rodriguez is No. 7 on the steals list with 59 this season. He is behind No. 6 Vernon Jennings (60), No. 5 Robert Hite (61), No. 4 Jerome Scott (70).  

* Hurricane senior Joe Thomas ends his Miami career after one season at The U. Thomas graduated from Niagara in 2014, and transferred to UM in the fall of the same year. He is the team’s only grad student or senior.

Player Notes

* Sheldon McClellan has 31 games with 10+ points this season and 15 games with 10+ points in the second half alone. McClellan finished the game with 17 points.

* Miami started three players who were not on the team a season ago: Freshman Ja’Quan Newton, freshman Omar Sherman and junior Ivan Cruz Uceda.

* Ja’Quan Newton started the third game of his career and connected on multiple 3-point field goals for the first time as a Hurricane.

* Omar Sherman tied a career high with three blocks (previously done vs. NC State, 1/22/15).

* Ivan Cruz Uceda tied his career high with two blocks (previously done vs. Alabama, 3/21/15).

* Davon Reed scored in double-digits in three of the last four games.

* Miami outscored its opponents 40.4-32.6 in the second half of the NIT. The Hurricanes outscored Stanford by a 38-27 count.

* Miami is 37-45 all-time in overtime games, including 7-8 under Coach Jim Larrañaga and 1-2 this season.

* Miami has played 16 games this season that were decided by five points-or-less. The Canes had five losses by a total of 22 points in the month of February. Three of those games were decided by a total of five points.

This Season Miami has …

• Played in the National Invitation Tournament Championship game.

• Defeated Duke and Syracuse on the road in the same season, the second time this has ever happened, and the first time since UNC did so during the 1983-84 season.

• Defeated three ranked teams: at No. 8/7 Florida, vs. No. 24/25 Illinois and at No. 4 Duke.

• Defeated a pair of Top 7 teams in the same season, both on the road: No. 6/7 Florida and No. 4 Duke.

• Won two true road games against ranked opponents for the first time since 1998-99: No. 6/7 Florida and No. 4 Duke.

• Defeated Coach K, Coach Boeheim & Coach Donovan.

• Ended Duke’s 41-game home winning streak, the longest active streak in Division I.

• Snapped Duke’s 19-game ACC home game winning streak.

• Snapped Florida’s streak of 33 consecutive home wins, which was the longest streak in school history.

• Scored 90 points against Duke, the most points scored by an unranked opponent in a regulation win in Cameron Indoor Stadium since NC State’s 96 points on Feb. 23, 1983.

• Dealt Duke the most lopsided loss (16 points) an unranked visitor has handed to a ranked Blue Devil team in the ACC era.

• Defeated Syracuse at the Carrier Dome, in front of the largest collegiate crowd of the season to date (Jan. 24): 30,677.