WTF Happened? Beach balls, alley-oops and a Tre Donaldson takeover: Miami survives Virginia Tech, 67–66

Some games are call for the moment, where as other gams feel like a coronation, a party of some softs.

Funny enough, on Tuesday night at the Watsco Center was both — a half-tight, half-carnival clash that ended with Tre Donaldson walking off like he’d carried the whole stove.

Miami escaped Virginia Tech 67–66 thanks to Donaldson’s 32 points — including the Hurricanes’ final 15 — and a lot of ugly, necessary late-game craft. The building was electric, the crowd was loud, and yes: beach balls kept crossing the court like rogue confetti. At one point a ref lobbed one back to the students. Later, Jai Lucas calmly tossed another to the scorer’s table like he was finishing a defensive rotation. A floor crew member used a media timeout to throw alley-oops to himself. The game never stopped being weird, and it never stopped meaning anything.

Miami lived downhill — and in Tre’s hands

This was not a perimeter show. Shelton Henderson attacked downhill with the kind of directness that forced the Hokies into retreat mode; Dante Allen supplied timely scoring; Tru Washington flashed at the rim. But when the game demanded an answer, Lucas and Miami handed the ball to the guy who’d been logging extra gym time.

 

“I just wanted to win,” Donaldson said afterward, voice tight with the kind of relief that comes after a late-night sprint. “That’s what I want for my team. I want it for my coaches as well. Just the will to want to, whatever it took.”

Donaldson’s late flurry included a big three off the top of the key — a shot he described as the product of “confidence, gym work, Andrew Moran, Dane, Dane Wall” — and a string of finishes and free throws that flipped the scoreboard into Miami’s column. “I knew it was going to be a down five for a while, so I’m just trying to get over that hump… it’s easy to get down in tough games like that,” he said. “We found a way, so just being able to steal confidence in my guys… that was the biggest thing.”

Ernest Udeh Jr. wasn’t a silent partner. The big man’s switching and rim protection changed the tone of Virginia Tech’s possessions when Miami needed stops. Donaldson called Udeh a brother; Udeh called Trey’s night “unconscious” and said he’s blessed to call him his point guard. Coach Lucas, who admitted he’s “probably one of the people I’m hardest on” when it comes to Udeh, said the center “is capable of being one of the best defenders in the country” and praised how he guarded Virginia Tech late.

grit, adjustments, & A Whole lot of trust

Lucas’s postgame mood was that of someone thrilled but yet someone who was exhausted (in a good sense) because of the battle his Miami Hurricanes team endured.

Lucas kept speaking about winning the game in the margins and what that means for victory versus a defeat.

 

“One, how good is the ACC? That’s my first statement,” Lucas said. “Virginia Tech — that’s a tournament team. They’re extremely well coached, because they’re physical, they execute.” He had sympathy for the Hokies’ misfortune in close games, noting several defeats decided in the final seconds. “I had to tell them I’m sorry after the game… they would be at the top of the league if it wasn’t that way.”

The coach was blunt about Miami’s availability issues: “We got a lot of guys playing heavy minutes, a lot of guys banged up. Malik didn’t play, Trey didn’t know if he was gonna play… Sheldon’s knees, Ernest’s hip.” Even so, Lucas said the team found a way.

 

“These are the games in late February, early March, that you have to win and have to find ways to win if you wanna compete,” he said. “We weren’t at our best, and we found a way.”

Lucas also explained a tactical pivot: Miami started switching more to disrupt Virginia Tech’s rhythm. “We had to start switching just because their pace was a lot faster in person than it was on film… normally, we aren’t a switching team, but it was kind of the thing we had in our back pocket,” he said. That gambit helped Miami “steal some possessions,” and those possessions turned into the margin of victory.

Momentum, culture, and March on the horizon

There’s a feel to teams that win ugly and keep winning. Donaldson spoke to it directly:

 

“Our culture is our biggest thing… that’s what JD’s been trying to instill his first year. That’s what head coaches to GAs, to student managers — it’s instilled in us, and it’s shown.”

After the final free throw with 12 seconds left and Ben Hammond’s heave came up short, the Watsco Center exhaled and then roared again.

Miami improves to 21–5 (10–3 ACC) and heads east on the schedule to a tough test: a road trip to No. 14 Virginia on Saturday.

Lucas called Virginia “really good… really big” and compared the environment there to a Sweet 16 or Elite Eight feel. He’ll start scouting tomorrow; for now he’s resting his players and savoring that late-February win.

 

“This group learned resilience through the season,” Lucas said. “We’ve gone through stuff — Florida, BYU — and it’s gotten us here.”

Call it a persistence win. Call it messy. Call it the moment Tre Donaldson looks like he’s already packing his March Madness bag.

Either way, Miami survived a game that refused to relax,  and did so with beach balls in the air, a bench doing self-alley-oops, and a point guard who would not be denied.