Miami Hurricanes at Virginia Tech Hokies

Blackshear, No. 16 Virginia Tech beat Miami 71-56 in ACCs

Outlaw hit three 3-pointers during the Hokies' game-opening 11-point run and they never trailed in beating Miami 71-56 on Wednesday in the second round.

Kerry Blackshear had 19 points and 10 rebounds for the fifth-seeded Hokies (24-7). They ran out to a 20-point lead before halftime, then turned away Miami's last serious push early in the second half with a 20-5 run that drove the margin past 20 again.

"When you have teammates like ours, it makes the game a lot easier from the start, whether we're hitting or not, because everybody is a threat," Blackshear said. "We know that when somebody is hot, that's the person we're going to find.

"We know that each person is going to make the right basketball play for our team, whether that be taking their own shot, finding somebody else, setting a screen, anything like that."

Virginia Tech twice made at least five straight shots during the game.

"They move the ball extremely fast to basically four guards on the perimeter and a big guy who can really handle," Miami coach Jim Larranaga said. "All five guys shoot the 3. They spread you out.

Chris Lykes scored 19 points for Miami (14-18) which never gave itself much of a chance by falling behind big from the jump and shooting just 34 percent.

BIG PICTURE

"It was very, very challenging to have only seven scholarship players available to us," Larranaga said. "It was very hard to prepare and practice properly. Because, amongst those seven players, they were dealing with injuries."

Virginia Tech: The Hokies won't have point guard Justin Robinson for the ACC Tournament as he continues to deal with a foot injury that has sidelined him since late January. That wasn't a problem in their tournament debut.

LYKES' INJURY

The 5-7 Lykes, Miami's leading scorer at 16.2 points, was helped off after he suffered a right-ankle injury when landing on a layup with 3:24 left. Larranaga said afterward that Lykes was getting an X-ray.

Larranaga said he was "hoping it's not bad, but I'm not optimistic."

OUTLAW'S START

Outlaw scored all 14 of his points in the first half, including the three 3s in the first 4 1/2 minutes in a sign of how Outlaw says he's "ready to shoot whenever (teammates kick it out."

"If he has space and he has 10 toes to the rim, I think he's an elite level shooter," Virginia Tech coach Buzz Williams said.

RUN IT BACK

Virginia Tech closed the regular season with a loss at Florida State followed by a home win against Miami. Now, after beating the Hurricanes, they're playing the Seminoles again.

"It's strange, right?" Williams said. "We're living last week in reverse this week."

UP NEXT

The Hokies will face 12th-ranked and fourth-seeded Florida State in Thursday's quarterfinals.

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Follow Aaron Beard on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/aaronbeardap

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• TV Channel: Miami at Virginia Tech 2021 College Basketball, week 19, is broadcasted on ESPN.
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