Reliving the 2013 ACC Tournament Championship Game
The Miami Hurricanes made history on this day seven years ago, capping a memorable three-day run in Greensboro, N.C., with the school’s first ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament title.
The Hurricanes entered the 2013 tournament as the top seed after an impressive regular season. Miami, picked fifth in the ACC’s preseason poll, went 15-3 in conference play, including a 7-1 mark at home.
Miami opened the tournament with a 69-58 quarterfinal win over Boston College. Shane Larkin scored 20 points, while Kenny Kadji added 15. UM led by as many as 13 points before the Eagles tied the game at 55 with just over three minutes remaining. But Durand Scott hit two free throws and Larkin came up with a steal and a three-pointer to give the Hurricanes some breathing room.
Miami squared off with NC State in Saturday’s semifinals. Durand poured in a career-high 32 points, while Larkin added 23 in UM’s 81-71 victory. The Hurricanes came out firing, shooting 46 percent in the first half and leading by as many as 19 points. The Wolfpack never got closer than six points in the second half as UM cruised into the championship game.
The Hurricanes faced another partisan Tobacco Road crowd Sunday as they faced third-seeded North Carolina. Larkin scored 28 points, eight of them in the final 2 1/2 minutes, to help Miami pull away for an 87-77 win. Both teams put on a show from behind the arc, combining for 25 three-pointers. UM shot 51 percent overall and posted a 36-28 rebounding advantage. Larkin was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player and joined Scott on the All-Tournament Team.
“I thought the first half was about as high a level of basketball as I’ve seen all year long,” head coach Jim Larrañaga said after the game. “I thought we played great, I thought Carolina was great. That’s what I told the team at halftime, I said we’re playing great, they’re playing great, it’s a great game. We’ve got to keep playing great. The guys did.
“We had to make some adjustments because Carolina is so good at shooting the three we went to a small lineup and between Durand, Shane, Trey (McKinney Jones) and Rion Brown we were able to match up a little bit better and do some switching. That didn’t seem to really cause them many problems but it ended up we were scoring so effectively at our end as well. We were shooting the three about as well as they were, so just a tremendous college basketball game and we’re thrilled to be the ACC Tournament Champions for 2013.”
Miami became the first school since 1974 to win the ACC outright regular-season and tournament titles in the same season. The Hurricanes were also the first ACC school outside of the state of North Carolina to do so.
The ACC Tournament title earned Miami a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, where the Hurricanes eventually advanced to the Sweet 16.
