CORAL GABLES, Fla. _ For 40 minutes, Virginia did what Virginia does defensively. And then, the Cavaliers won it at the free-throw line with 8.3 seconds remaining.
No. 22 Virginia, college basketball's defending national champions, played their pack-line defense that's No. 2 nationally in opponents' field-goal percentage and tops in scoring defense to grind out a 46-44 over the Miami Hurricanes at Watsco Center on Wednesday night.
Sophomore guard Kihei Clark's two free throws at the end were the difference after he was fouled on the floor by UM guard Harlond Beverly.
As Miami was without junior guard Chris Lykes for the final stretch, senior DJ Vasiljevic drove to the basket on the Hurricanes' final possession, but a driving layup attempt rolled off.
Hurricanes coach Jim Larranaga said postgame it was a miscommunication that led to Beverly fouling Clark with Larranaga yelling to refs that he felt there was a foul earlier and the freshman taking it as instruction to foul.
"I felt bad for him," said UVA coach Tony Bennett, "but obviously, I was like, 'We have to take advantage of this.' "
Virginia got its first 17 points from 7-foot-1 forward Jay Huff, who didn't score in the second half. Meanwhile, forward Mamadi Diakite scored 10 of his 14 in the second half.
Lykes led the team with 16 points on 7-of-12 shooting but sat out the final 12:11 on Wednesday, leaving with an eye/nose laceration resulting from a collision with UM forward Sam Waardenburg, swooping toward the basket looking for a block defensively.
The Hurricanes (14-15, 6-13 ACC) lost their third consecutive game to counter the three-game winning streak that preceded this stretch.
The Cavaliers (22-7, 14-5) are strengthening their tournament resume at the right time, winning their seventh straight.
Redshirt senior forward Keith Stone hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 2:17 remaining to tie Miami with Virginia, 44-44.
A Vasiljevic 3-pointer with 8:16 remaining tied UM with UVA at 35 with 8:16 remaining. Virginia retook a 4-point advantage but, with Lykes out, Beverly three times got into the paint for layups that trimmed the deficit to 2.
Each team was held to single figures through the first 13 minutes as the Hurricanes and Cavaliers were stuck at 9-9 for scoring droughts of more than five minutes for each side.
Huff scored all 17 of Virginia's points deep into the first half and single-handedly had a 17-11 advantage on UM at the 5:36 mark.
Lykes had the Hurricanes keeping pace with his 14 points at the half, including an off-balance long 2-point jumper at the buzzer before halftime as Virginia led, 24-23, at intermission.
The Hurricanes started with just 2 points in the first six minutes on Wednesday. Lykes snapped them out of the slump momentarily with 5 quick points.
Miami wraps up its regular season at home against Syracuse in a 4 p.m. tip on Saturday.
