The No. 6 Miami Hurricanes suffered their third defeat in four games, this time to the unranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, who improved to 16-13 this year and 6-11 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The slumping Hurricanes blew a 13-point lead at home to the fired-up Yellow Jackets, and lost the game on a buzzer-beater by Marcus Georges Hunt, who had followed up his own miss for the game-winning tip in. Aside from the final seconds, Georges Hunt didn't have a major impact in the points column, but he racked up six rebounds and six assists in the win. The scoring load was carried by Chris Bolden, who poured in 21 points, including 4-of-8 from 3-point range. Center Daniel Miller added 17 points on 8-of-12 shooting and pulled down five rebounds.
Kenny Kadji led Miami with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Durand Scott was right behind Kadji with 17 points and Julian Gamble pitched in 11 points off the bench.
The Hurricanes began the season on a 13-0 tear in the ACC that included a 27-point win over the then-No.1 Duke Blue Devils, a one-point win at then-No. 19 North Carolina State, and two spankings of the North Carolina Tar Heels. More recently, though, Miami has losses to ACC bottom feeders Wake Forest and Georgia Tech sandwiching a road loss to Duke at Cameron Indoor Arena.
The Georgia Tech loss could be disastrous for Miami's hopes of snatching a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. According to ESPN's Joe Lunardi, Miami has likely ceded their No. 2 seed to the Florida Gators. They have one game left in the regular season, a home matchup with the Clemson Tigers, and the ACC Tournament to climb back up. If Miami drops the Clemson game, and Duke can hold off the surging Tar Heels in their building, Duke and Miami will share the ACC title. Miami had a three-game lead in the conference with three games to play.
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