Malik Reneau scored a season-high 28 points to lead host Miami to a 76-69 victory over Pitt in the Atlantic Coast Conference opener for both teams on Tuesday.
Reneau, who sat out the final 7:32 of the first half because of foul trouble, shot 8 of 13 from the field and made all 10 of his free-throw attempts for his 10th 20-point game this season.
Tre Donaldson scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half and Tru Washington added 11 points for the Hurricanes (12-2, 1-0), who won their seventh straight game and improved to 10-0 at home.
The Hurricanes didn’t claim their first ACC win last season until Feb. 1, when they defeated Notre Dame 63-57 to snap a 10-game losing streak.
Cameron Corhen scored 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead a balanced effort for Pittsburgh (7-7, 0-1), which owned a 10-point lead two minutes into the second half. Barry Dunning Jr. added 16 points and Damarco Minor contributed 14.
Shelton Henderson’s layup gave Miami a 25-15 lead at the 9:31 mark of the first half, but the Panthers ran off 20 unanswered points over a 6:09 span to seize control. Dunning’s 3-pointer with 3:14 remaining gave Pitt a 35-25 lead.
Corhen’s free throw with 1:42 left gave the Panthers their largest lead of the half at 40-27. Minor’s 3-pointer with 27 seconds made it 43-31 before the Hurricanes got to 43-33 at the break on Washington’s layup at the buzzer.
Miami opened the second half on a 13-2 spurt that erased its 10-point halftime deficit. Donaldson’s layup gave the Hurricanes a 48-45 lead with 13:23 to play.
The teams kept trading the lead and neither could build more than a 4-point edge until Donaldson’s 3-pointer with 3:19 remaining increased Miami’s lead to 69-63.
Minor answered with two free throws, but Donaldson cashed a jumper and Reneau sank a 3-pointer with 38 seconds to go.
The Hurricanes overcame 4-of-22 shooting from 3-point range by making 20 of 26 free throws. They also outrebounded the Panthers 43-28.
After making 5 of 12 3-point attempts in the first half, the Panthers shot 1 of 13 from behind the arc in the second half.
–Field Level Media
