Malik Reneau scores 24 as Miami pulls away from Missouri late for 80-66 win in NCAA Tournament
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ST. LOUIS (AP) — Malik Reneau, Tre Donaldson and the rest of the guys from Miami heard the boos before they stepped onto the floor for their NCAA Tournament opener, which was supposedly played at a neutral site but sure felt like a road game.
The crowd was filled with Missouri fans for a game played a couple of hours away from the school’s Columbia campus.
Unfazed by both the hostility of the fans and every run the Tigers put together, Reneau proceeded to score 24 points, Donaldson hit a couple of big baskets down the stretch, and the seventh-seeded Hurricanes pulled away late for an 80-66 victory on Friday night that earned them a date with Purdue for a spot in the Sweet 16.
“We had a good idea coming in what we were going to see in the stands,” said Donaldson, who finished with 17 points. “Our biggest thing was to treat it like a normal road game. Don’t overcomplicate it. Don’t do anything different. We’ve won a couple of these.”
Now they’ve won one more.
Shelton Henderson also scored 15 points for the Hurricanes (26-8), who trailed midway through the second half of their first NCAA Tournament trip since they reached the 2023 Final Four, but put together an 11-0 run that gave them control down the stretch.
Now, Miami gets to face the second-seeded Boilermakers on Sunday. Purdue routed No. 15 seed Queens.
The way Purdue fans travel, that one might feel a bit like a road trip, too.
Jayden Stone scored 21 points and Mark Mitchell had 19 for the No. 10 seed Tigers (20-13), who have lost nine of their last 10 NCAA Tournament games. Anthony Robinson II also had 11 points and five assists before fouling out in the final minute.
“I’m proud of our guys. I’m proud of what we’ve done this year,” Missouri coach Dennis Gates said. “We responded, we took the lead in the middle of the second (half), but the most important part, we weren’t able to capitalize and get their shooting percentage down.”
The Tigers entered the tourney on a three-game skid, their last win coming way back on Feb. 28, and for most of the first half they looked like a team that had barely scraped off the bubble and into the 68-team field. Miami dominated the boards, and the Tigers had to resort to launching contested 3-pointers as they struggled to find any offense.
The Hurricanes stretched their lead to 10 points late in the first half.
Mitchell finally ended a five-minute scoring drought with a pair of free throws, though, and the rest of the Tigers started to heat up just before the break. Robinson hit a bucket in transition, Mitchell added two more free throws, and Robinson’s 3-pointer capped nine straight points that closed Missouri within 27-26 as the teams headed to the locker rooms.
Miami held tight to its slim lead until midway through the second half, when the Tigers ran off eight straight points to pull ahead. But after Mitchell’s 3-pointer gave Missouri a 54-52 advantage, the Hurricanes answered with their 11-0 burst to regain control.
Reneau and Henderson each had back-to-back baskets during the run, which pushed Miami ahead 63-54 with 4:23 to go.
Mitchell hit a couple of 3s down the stretch to keep Missouri alive, but Reneau answered the first by getting to the line for two free throws, and Donaldson answered the second with a 3-pointer of his own to help put the game away.
“Missouri is so well-coached just with how they attack, how they’re built — the physicality they play with,” Miami coach Jai Lucas said. “We took care of the ball in the second half and that’s why we were able to generate the separation that we did.”
Smaller Miami wins on the boards
The Tigers had a big size advantage on paper, but the scrappy Hurricanes played like the bigger team all night. They ended up with a 46-30 edge in rebounding, and that in turn led to a 19-2 advantage in second-chance points.
“We’ve been emphasizing offensive rebounding since we got here, since the summertime. That’s all we’ve been doing,” Reneau said. “It is just drilled into us to constantly be pushing for rebounds at both of the ends.”
Up next
Purdue has won three of its four games against the Hurricanes, including a second-rounder in the 1999 NCAA Tournament, when Miami was the No. 2 seed. The Boilermakers then lost to Temple in the Sweet 16.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness