Hurricanes Power Past Missouri in NCAA Tournament Round 1, Move On to Purdue

A hostile crowd. A tough opponent. Everything on the line. The No. 7 seed Miami Hurricanes played a fast-paced, physical battle Friday night in the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance in three years against essentially a home team crowd for Missouri in St. Louis.

The end result?

Miami won, 80-66, moving on to face No. 2 seed Purdue at 12:10 p.m. on Sunday.

UM had a 10-point first half lead whittled away and trailed briefly in the second half before reasserting control behind an 11-0 run.

“Missouri is so well coached with how they attack, the way they are built, the physicality they play with,” coach Jai Lucas said after the win. “For us what I’m most proud of is we talked about the glass and our identity showing – 19 second chance points, getting to the line 30 times, and taking care of the ball in the second half. That’s why we were avel to create the separation.”

No. 7 seed Miami played strong at the start with physicality and relentless rebounding – over the first 14 minutes UM had an 11-0 edge in second chance points that included a 10-1 offensive rebounding edge.

“We’ve been emphasizing offensive rebounding since the summer,” Malik Reneau said. “It’s just drilled in us to keep pushing the rebounds on both sides. … We are fighting for our lives. We fight for coach every time we step on the court.”

Missouri coach Dennis Gates said that “We just couldn’t keep those guys off the boards. … Great team, talented.”

After Mizzou scored the game’s first two points Miami led the rest of the half … but barely held onto a 27-26 advantage at the break. The shooting was there early with threes from Tre Donaldson, Tru Washington and a pair from Dante Allen that all came in the first 11:09. That helped UM stretch the defense, but then the Canes went cold. The first half saw Miami hit four of 12 threes but just six of 21 shots from closer in.

After UM opened its biggest lead at 27-17 with three minutes to go in the half, Missouri fought back with a 9-0 run going into the break that cut it to the one-point Cane advantage.

Mizzou’s top weapon, Mark Mitchell, didn’t score his first points until 2:54 to go in the half when he went to the line (his first made basket was with 11:57 to go in the second half) as Ernest Udeh, Malik Reneau and help defense worked to keep him in check.

“Mark Mitchell and everything he’s done for them this year, he was a big part of our game plan and trying to slow him down,” Lucas said. “He led them in points, rebounds and assists so we just tried to make it hard. We put Ernest on him, tried to give him a different look early.”

In the second half Miami clung to its slim lead of between one and five points until a Noam Dovrat three with 10:21 to play gave Miami a little bit of breathing room, 49-43. It was short-lived. Mizzou’s next possessions were a deep three and then a three-point play and the game was tied at 49. After a missed three by Washington it was Trent Pearce giving the Tigers their first lead since 2-0 when he hit a pair of free throws with 9:15 remaining.

It was a brand-new game.

Donaldson followed with a three to give the Canes the lead back, then a couple of possessions later Mitchell hit his first three of the game and Missouri had a 54-52 lead with 7:39 to go. Washington tied the game with a pair of free throws, then a Reneau layup and three-pointer plus a Henderson dunk and long jumper had Miami in the lead by nine, 63-54, at the 4:04 mark.

It was an 11-0 Miami run that put UM in control.

Miami kept answering as Missouri looked to get back in it down the stretch.

After a Mitchell three, Reneau answered back with two free throws for an eight-point advantage, and then Mitchell hit a corner three and it was 65-60 Canes with the clock running under three minutes to go.

The Canes reasserted themselves from there.

A bigtime Donaldson three followed, Mitchell was fouled and made two free throws, and then Reneau converted a three-point play to give UM a commanding 71-62 lead with 2:17 to go. The dagger: After Mizzou didn’t convert a Donaldson three made it 74-62 at the 1:37 mark.

Game. Set. Match.

“It was exciting – you still get he same feeling as I remember when I played in March Madness,” Lucas said. “That excitement, that joy, it’s like an anxious excitement. It was great. I enjoyed it. It was neutral but really a road game, so it made it more exciting. It’s something we’ve thrived in all year.”

Miami was led by Reneau (24 points, 8-11 free throws. 2-4 threes), Donaldson (17 points, 5-7 threes 8 rebounds, 6 assists). Shelton Henderson (15 points, 7-15 shooting) and Dante Allen (9 points, 6 rebounds).

“We did a really good job of staying poised, staying together, understanding the task at hand and handling it well,” Donaldson said.

Mitchell ended with 19 points but struggled with five turnovers and shot four-for-10 from the field. It was Jayden Stone that picked up the slack for the Tigers with 21 points. But it wasn’t enough without Mitchell able to get going.

“Coach did a great job with the game plan,” Reneau said.

“They built a wall, made it hard for me,” Mitchell said. “It was a good game plan, I couldn’t get going till late.”

UM shot 43.3 percent from the field (11 of 24 threes); Missouri was held to 35.1 percent (10 of 28 from long range).

Free throw shooting, a recurring issue for Miami this season, was hit or miss – literally. The team started four for 12 and ended hitting 17 of 29.

The hot shooting from three is something Miami didn’t enjoy a lot of this season … and if it continues could push the Canes deep into the tournament.

“The shooting percentage in the second half – it was the tale of two different halves,” Gates said. “We weren’t able to get their shooting percentages down.”

Now Purdue, which thrashed Queens 104-71, is up next.

“It was a team effort,” Lucas said. “I’m just really proud of them.”

Here is a transcript of the postgame press conference:

Miami 80, Missouri 66

MODERATOR: The victorious Miami Hurricanes are with us. Head coach Jai Lucas, along with Tre Donaldson, Malik Reneau and Shelton Henderson.

Coach, please make a statement on the game.

JAI LUCAS: Missouri is so well coached, with how they attack, the way they’re built, the physicality they play with. Mark Mitchell and everything he’s done for them this year, he was a big part of our game plan and trying to slow him down. We knew he led them in points, rebounds and assists. So we tried to make it hard. We put Ernest on him, tried to give him a different look early.

For us what I’m most proud of is we talked about the glass and our identity showing. 46 rebounds, 16 offensive rebounds, 19 second-chance points, getting to the line 30 times. And then we took care of the ball in the second half, and that’s why we were able to generate the separation we did.

And then these three up here with me in each part of the game, they showed why they have gotten us here, to be honest with you. Malik being able to close, Tre with his big shots, Shelton in the first half kind of carrying us offensively. But it was a team effort. I’m just really proud of them.

MODERATOR: Questions?

Q.  It definitely felt like a road game out there. I’m just wondering how much that played for the players, how much did that play? Did that fire you guys up when you came out for introductions and everybody was booing, how did that feel being the visiting team out there.

TRE DONALDSON: We had a good idea coming into the game what we were going to see in the stands. Coach’s biggest thing is just treat it like a normal road game. Don’t try to overcomplicate it, do nothing different. We’ve won some of these and that’s what we gotta go do tonight. I felt like we did a good job of staying poised, staying together, understanding what the task was at hand and handling it well.

SHELTON HENDERSON: Talk trash really gets me going. It was a lot of Mizzou fans in the crowd that were against us. And that’s what we like. We like the adversity and just pushed us to get this W. Last answer was Henderson.

Q.  Jai and Malik, I know you said Mark was a big part of your game plan. He’s a big part of everybody’s game plan when they play Missouri. And most teams don’t have the success against him you guys did. What do you think specifically you guys did so well?

MALIK RENEAU: I think Coach did a great job of the game plan. He switched Ernest, our best defensive big, onto him and gave him size and length and caused havoc when he was coming down to the paint. I think Ernest did a great job with that even though he fouled out.

JAI LUCAS: For me it was just trying to make it as hard as possible. So we started with size. We wanted to put somebody a little bit bigger on him. And then every time he got in the paint, we wanted him to at least see two people. So some of the stuff they did and some of the lineups gave us the ability to do that a little bit.

But the way Stone started shooting the ball it made it tougher because he started to hit some. But we never wanted him to be able to take more than two dribbles and not see somebody.

Q.  Malik, offensive rebounding by you and your team was high level tonight. Can you just in your own words describe why you guys were so successful at that?

MALIK RENEAU: I mean we’ve been emphasizing offensive rebounding since we got here, since the summertime that’s all we’ve been doing, just every day, we offensive rebound. We do box-out drills, rebounding drills. So it’s just drilled in us to constantly keep pushing the rebounds on both sides of the end.

Q.  Malik and Tre, sort of a more philosophical question. What is it about Coach that was able to pull this team together as quickly as he did to build you into a group that could’ve achieve what you achieved this season that could find that identity that you’ve talked about and really hold onto it for a whole year? What about his approach made that possible?

TRE DONALDSON: Just how relatable he is. He’s very open. He says that we have a very collaborative program. That’s the word he likes to use. He’s just relatable. And I feel like that gives us as a team able to be that close to our coach, it’s easy for us as a team and players to come together and just understanding that why we’re all here. He preaches that to us all the time to keep the chip on our shoulder and that’s what continues to push us and understand everybody else’s story, and understanding that we have to do this together.

MALIK RENEAU: Like Tre said, I mean, the guys that he brought in all have been going through adversity wherever they’ve been, and the main thing is just we’re fighting for our lives. I mean, that’s all we could think of and every time we step on the court we got the utmost trust for Coach and we go out there, and we fight for coach every time we step on the court.

Q.  Question for Tre and Malik. There was a run where you guys went 23 and 8 towards the end of the game. You guys combined for 17 of those 23. What was going through your head? How did you guys build off of each other’s offense (VIDEO FEED INTERRUPTION ).

TRE DONALDSON: For other teammates and I feel like just me and Malik understanding that and stepping up to the plate and executing when coach puts us in those situations together.

Q.  Malik, after the way shots weren’t falling for you in the first half, what kind of flipped for you in the second?

MALIK RENEAU: Just calming down, everybody telling me to be patient and letting the game come to you and I think I did very well at that. Early the shots I think I was just over hyped with my shots and pushing it too hard and falling short.

(VIDEO FEED INTERRUPTION).

JAI LUCAS: Same type of feeling, that excitement, that joy that is like an anxious excitement. You get the same feeling. So it was great. I enjoyed it. It was a neutral but it really was a road game. So it made it even more exciting. It’s something that we’ve thrived in all year. So it was great.

Q.  Coach, can you just talk about with Shelton and Dante, just the trust you had in them to be able to go out there in a situation like this and what you thought of their performance tonight?

JAI LUCAS: You know, for me, along with Tre, Ernest, Tru, Malik, Dante and Shelton are really my first freshman recruits. And so they are kind of the foundation of the program along with these guys, unless they go somewhere. But they are the ones I identified early, and I had the utmost trust in them. And that’s why they played those amount of minutes.

Shelton is somebody I’ve known for a while. We went to the same high school. He trained in the same gym I did. So I’ve seen him grow up. I always like to say I recruited Dante secondhandedly when I was at another school recruiting some of his teammates. I saw Dante play a lot and I said if I ever got a job that would value what Dante Allen did, I would take him with me. And I just had the opportunity to get this one.

Their makeup, the way they’re built, the winning characteristics, their pedigree, it gives me nothing but trust in them.