Miami ended its six-game losing streak to in-state rival Florida State on Tuesday night, winning 83-73 to further solidify its status as an NCAA Tournament-worthy team.

Senior forward and leading scorer Malik Reneau was clutch down the stretch, both with his scoring (23 points, 15 in second half) and his rebounding (12 boards). His most important play came late in the second half, as a second-chance bucket from Reneau extended UM’s lead to seven with 49 seconds left.

This was Reneau’s sixth game this season with 20-plus points and 10-plus rebounds.

“He’s just been as consistent as can be for us,” Miami head coach Jai Lucas said about Reneau. “I’m always yelling and screaming at him, and I look up and he’s got 18 and eight, and so then I got to check myself a little bit and be like, ‘Alright, he’s doing fine.’ He came up with some timely offensive rebounds today. The last one on the free throw for the tip-in was huge. I thought this was his best rebounding game.”

Miami heads home for its next game on Saturday at 2 pm against Boston College. Here are five takeaways from the Hurricanes’ win over the Seminoles.

Henderson survives injury scare

Miami’s postseason dreams seemed to take a crushing blow with five minutes left in the second half, as freshman forward Shelton Henderson went down to the court with a non-contact injury, holding his knee. He winced in pain immediately after the fall which appeared to be caused by a wet spot on the floor, and walked gingerly back to the locker room while assisted by medical trainers.

Somehow, Henderson returned to the game a minute later and moved well for the remainder of the contest. For the game, Henderson scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds.

A healthy Henderson is vital for a Hurricanes squad looking to make a deep run in both the ACC and NCAA tournaments. Miami is fortunate, as he returned to the game, that Henderson’s non-contact injury doesn’t appear to be anything too serious.

Donaldson returns to Tallahassee

Tuesday’s game was a homecoming for senior guard Tre Donaldson, who grew up near FSU’s campus in Tallahassee. Forty friends and family members of Donaldson were in the stands, according to the TV broadcast.

Donaldson played with an obvious edge. He looked over at the FSU crowd after every basket and made several impactful plays down the stretch to help lead the Hurricanes to victory. He ended with 21 points, 15 of which were in the second half.

“He’s been one of the guys that’s carried us all year,” Lucas said about Donaldson. “But this is a different game. It’s his first time playing at home. I’ve been in a game where I went back home to play, so I knew the emotions. I knew what he was thinking. I knew it was going to take him time to settle. I thought it’d be a little bit earlier, but I was glad that he was able to do it and then kind of carry us down the stretch.”

Canes continue shooting well from deep

Miami’s 9-of-18 three-point shooting performance against Virginia seemed like an outlier for a team that has typically not shot the ball well from beyond the arc.

But maybe that shooting display was a sign of things to come in the season’s final stretch as the Hurricanes again shot the three-ball efficiently at a decently high volume. Miami went 9-of-21 from deep, with Donaldson leading the way with four three-pointers.

If the Hurricanes can shoot at this level in the postseason, the ceiling of what they can accomplish rises quite a bit.

Turnovers pile up

FSU head coach Luke Loucks, who previously coached at the assistant level in the NBA, mixed in a blend of both man-to-man and zone defense against Miami, who was able to score against the versatile Seminoles defense but made way too many careless mistakes.

The Hurricanes turned the ball over 18 times, significantly more than their season average of 11.2 turnovers per game. Henderson (five) and Reneau (four) led the team in turnovers.

“The only thing I’m kind of pissed about right now is 18 turnovers that led to 26 points for them,” Lucas said. “I thought we had a good defensive game until we started giving them the ball.”

Postseason outlook

We at CaneSport are not bracketology gurus. We leave that to the experts.

But when it comes to Miami’s chances of making the Big Dance, we think the Hurricanes are in a really, really good spot. A win over lowly Boston College on Saturday very likely locks in their spot to make the NCAA tournament for the first time since the 2022–23 season, when they made the Final Four.

Miami is now 22-6 on the season and sports an ACC record of 11-4. It features a 10-6 record in Quadrants 1 and 2 games and does not hold a loss against a Quad 3 or 4 team.