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No. 17 Miami races past Florida

Jim Larrañaga, Sheldon McClellan

Jim Larrañaga, Sheldon McClellan

AP

No. 17 Miami couldn’t get much going outside of their starting five, but a strong defensive effort and some good performances from Sheldon McClellan and Angel Rodriguez led the Hurricanes to a 66-55 win over Florida.

McClellan finished with 24 points and five rebounds while Rodriguez had 15 points to pace Miami. Despite battling some injury issues late in the first half and early in the second half, Miami big man Tonye Jekiri finished with nine points and nine rebounds.

Entering the game, Florida was the SEC’s leading rebounding team, but they got beaten on the glass, 42-to-31, as the Hurricanes were the aggressor on the interior for the entire game. Miami also held Florida to 38 percent (22-for-57) shooting and eight percent (1-for-12) 3-point shooting on the night as the Gators couldn’t figure out a consistent half-court offense.

John Egbunu led the Gators with 14 points and five rebounds while Dorian Finney-Smith had 12 points and Devin Robinson added 11 points.

Even though Miami didn’t get much outside of its starting five, this was a very positive win for the Hurricanes as their defense looked fantastic and McClellan and Rodriguez made enough plays to help them maintain consistent control. The Hurricanes got a lot out of their seniors in the home win and looked like a team that figured out that defense could win them games when offense wasn’t coming easy.