Miami (FL) 59 Virginia Tech 49
Sheldon McClellan led the sixth-seeded Hurricanes with 16 points over an upset-minded Virginia Tech team, and was also key on the defensive end as Miami (21-11) shut the Hokies down in the second half.
14th-seeded Virginia Tech (11-22) was coming off of a hard-fought 81-80 win over Wake Forest on Tuesday night. Freshman guard Jalen Hudson, who scored a career-high 35 points and hit the game-winning basket against the Demon Deacons one night earlier, was held to just five points on 2-of-7 shooting.
A lot of the credit for limiting Hudson went to McClellan.
“I told (the coaching staff) that I wanted to guard him,” McClellan said. “My mindset was, just, stop him, and the offense will come.”
The defensive effort from McClellan was especially impressive when considering the fact that he never came out of the game.
“He played 40 minutes of just terrific basketball,” Miami coach Jim Larranaga said. “I went to take him out once, and I turned to my staff, and they said, `No, he never really gets tired.”
Hudson was actually the player to give the Hokies their only short-lived lead of the game when his driving layup made it 38-37 in favor of the Hokies with nine minutes left in the second half. The Hurricanes would go on to outscore Virginia Tech 22-11 over the last eight minutes of the game.
The Hokies were led by freshman guard Ahmed Hill, who finished with 10 points and eight rebounds.
Up next: Miami moves on to face third-seeded Notre Dame at 9 p.m ET on Thursday.
