Florida

#13 Canes Rally In 2nd Half To Beat Syracuse 64-51

January 2, 2016 / 7:24 PM EST / CBS Miami

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MIAMI (The Sports Xchange) -- No. 13 Miami recovered from its worst half of basketball all season and rallied from a 12-point first-half deficit to a 64-51 victory over Syracuse in an Atlantic Coast Conference game Saturday afternoon.

Guard Sheldon McClellan scored 22 points and guard Ja'Quan Newton chipped in with 14 as the Hurricanes (12-1, 1-0 ACC) outscored the visiting Orange 47-26 in the second half.

Guard Malachi Richardson led Syracuse (10-5, 0-2) with 20 points.

The Hurricanes took their first lead since holding a 9-5 advantage early in the first half when forward Kamari Murphy scored on a breakaway dunk to make it 30-29 with 14:04 left in the game and eventually worked their way to a 41-34 advantage five minutes later.

But the Orange responded with an 8-0 run and the game went back and forth until Newton followed a 3-pointer with two free throws to put Miami up 49-44 with 3:57 left. Then guard Angel Rodriguez followed with a key steal and old-fashioned three-point play just 10 seconds later to give Miami an eight-point cushion, which eventually reached 14 points in the game's final minute.

Syracuse led 25-17 at the half, mostly on the strength of a 12-0 run that turned a 9-8 deficit into a 20-9 lead with 4:23 left in the period.

It was the lowest-scoring half of the season for the Hurricanes, who never could get into a comfortable rhythm against the Orange's 2-3 zone. They made only five of their 26 field goal attempts in the period (19.2 percent). Syracuse was not all that much better, going 9-of-28 (32.1 percent) from the field.

Syracuse's biggest lead came with less than three minutes left in the first period when guard Trevor Cooney's 3-pointer gave the Orange a 12-point bulge, 23-11.

The Hurricanes began to show some life after that with McClellan hitting a pair of free throws and guard Angel Rodriguez assisting on a dunk by center Toney Jekiri and a layup by McClellan for six unanswered points.

But Richardson closed out the scoring with a jumper with 38 seconds left in the half to put Syracuse back in front by eight.

NOTES: Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim was not on the bench at Miami while continuing to serve a nine-game NCAA-mandated suspension for violation of the so-called "responsibility rule" that holds a coach responsible for actions by his subordinates. His first game back will be Jan. 9 when the Orange host North Carolina. ... This is the only scheduled meeting between Miami and Syracuse in the regular season. ... The Hurricanes came into the game having lost their last three ACC openers.

NCAA