Jordan Miller, Isaiah Wong share how Miami avoided frustrations against Texas

Miami was teetering on the brink in the second half of Sunday’s Elite Eight games as Texas extended its lead to 13 points. But then the comeback was on.

Over the final 13 minutes of action, the Hurricanes outscored the Longhorns, 37-17, as they pulled out the upset victory 88-81 to advance to the Final Four.

It is the first Final Four in program history.

Miami guard Jordan Miller helped explain after the game why the team was able to stay focused and not get frustrated as they struggled at the beginning of the second half against Texas.

“First thing I would say is our perseverance,” Miller said in the press conference after the Elite Eight game. “None of us wanted to go home. Another big factor I would say is we know we’re pretty good offensively, but what’s going to decide a game for us comes down to how many stops we can get. Even though we shot that good of a percentage, they were scoring too, and we knew we couldn’t just keep scoring back and forth because they had the lead. So we had to dig deep, find a way to get stops.”

Miller was perfect shooting the basketball during the Miami-Texas contest. He was 7 of 7 from the field while going 13-for-13 from the free throw line. He finished with 27 points.

All five starters reached double figures as the team as a whole shot 29-for-49 from the field.

ACC Player of the Year and fellow backcourt mate Isaiah Wong finished with 14 points. He gave credit to their conference slate for getting them ready to play in games like this.

“I would just say I thank the ACC for preparing us for these types of games, just coming in, every game we played in the ACC is always a close game,” Wong said. “It’s always a shot to win. I feel like coming into March we’d been in those types of situations, and we played good. We weren’t afraid or scared of any situation. We just stuck together and played together throughout the game. I would just say I appreciate the ACC for the competition.”

Miami went 15-5 in conference play this season. All five of their losses came by six points or less and fur of them were by just a single basket.