Davon Reed's shooting barrage keeps Miami in ACC title contention
A defacto elimination game in the ACC title race turned in Miami's favor Monday night thanks to a brilliant performance from an unheralded hero.
Wing Davon Reed lived up to his @ClutchREED_5 Twitter handle, erupting for a career-high 21 points to lead the 12th-ranked Hurricanes to a 64-61 victory over third-ranked Virginia.
With turnover-prone point guard Angel Rodriguez struggling and wings Sheldon McClellan and JaQuan Newton both fighting through injuries, Reed bailed out the Hurricanes. He sank five 3-pointers against the tightly packed Virginia defense, the last of which extended Miami's lead to eight with 3:20 to go and gave the Hurricanes just enough cushion to survive Virginia's last-gasp comeback bid.
Reed's outside shooting performance was somewhat unexpected considering Miami's fourth leading scorer entered play shooting 33 percent from behind the arc and he hadn't sank more than two threes in a game in more than a month. The 6-foot-6 wing picked a fine time for a break-out night considering the Virginia defense thrives on walling off the paint and forcing opponents to shoot contested jumpers.
As a result of Reed's torrid shooting, Miami remains within striking distance of a top-three NCAA tournament seed and a second ACC title in the past four seasons. The Hurricanes (22-5, 11-4) sit alone in second place in the ACC, one-half game behind the North Carolina team that bludgeoned them by 25 points in Chapel Hill on Saturday afternoon.
The advantage Miami has is a slightly more favorable remaining schedule. The Hurricanes host fellow ACC contender Louisville on Saturday before closing the regular season at Notre Dame and Virginia Tech. North Carolina still has road games left at NC State, Virginia and Duke in addition to a lone home game against Syracuse.
Virginia could have been the team alone in second place in the ACC had it defeated Miami on Monday night. Instead the Cavaliers allowed that chance to slip through their fingers despite an outstanding 28-point game from ACC player of the year favorite Malcolm Brogdon.
On a night when none of his teammates even scored in double figures, Brogdon nearly made up for it with his ability to create scoring chances moving without the ball in his hands. Time after time, he curled around screens for catch-and-shoot 3-pointers or to free himself in the lane.
The only shot Brogdon missed came at an inopportune time, a heavily contested 3-point attempt over McClellan that would have given Virginia the lead with 25 seconds to go. One possession before that, Brogdon whipped a pass to Mike Tobey for what appeared to be a go-ahead layup but the big man could not get the shot to drop over Tonye Jekiri's outstretched arms.
Virginia's frustration was Miami's elation. The Hurricanes are still in the thick of the ACC title race, and they have their fourth-leading scorer to thank.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
