Isaiah Wong scored 27 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead the Miami Hurricanes to an 85-69 victory over the Indiana Hoosiers on Sunday night in a second-round game of the Midwest Region of the NCAA Tournament at Albany, N.Y.
The fifth-seeded Hurricanes (27-7) secured back-to-back appearances in the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history and will face the region’s top seed, Houston, on Friday in Kansas City, Mo., in the region semifinal.
Miami is the final team remaining from the Atlantic Coast Conference in this year’s tournament.
Fourth-seed Indiana (23-12) came up short on its bid to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2016 despite 23 points, eight rebounds and five blocks from All-American Trayce Jackson-Davis.
The Hoosiers appeared ready to take control of the game early in the second half when they used a 13-0 run that carried over from the closing moments of the first half to erase a 10-point Miami lead.
But the Hurricanes used their pressure defense to force turnovers that led to multiple transition scores and led to an 18-4 run, giving them a 65-53 lead with 7:27 left.
The Hoosiers cut the deficit to 77-69 on a pair of 3-pointers by Jalen Hood-Schifino, who totaled 19 points, with 2:26 to go. Race Thompson added 11 points and seven rebounds for the Hoosiers.
But Miami answered quickly with back-to-back buckets from Wong and Nijel Pack, who finished with 12 points.
Jordan Miller collected 19 points, five rebounds and two blocks for Miami as well and delivered an emphatic dunk on another fast break score in the closing seconds to punctuate the win.
“Our guys were disappointed about the way they played Friday, so they were eager to show this is Miami basketball,” Miami coach Jim Larranaga said after the game on the TNT broadcast. “They’re really hard to guard.”
Norchad Omier finished with a game-high 17 rebounds to go along with seven points, which helped Miami outrebound Indiana 48-31, including 20-12 on the offensive glass.
–Field Level Media