CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Facing a tied game at the half, No. 10 Miami used 18 second-half points from McDonald's All-American Lonnie Walker and a tenacious defense to overcome a gritty Boston University men's basketball team effort, 69-54, on Tuesday night at the Watsco Center. 

The unbeaten Hurricanes (8-0) entered the contest fourth in the country in defensive field goal percentage (35.7 FG%) and won their 15th-straight non-conference home game by holding the Terriers (3-4) to 29.0 percent shooting over the final 20 minutes of action.

TURNING POINT

• Senior Cedric Hankerson hit a contested layup and the free throw to pull the Terriers within eight (55-47) at 8:47 but Miami's Anthony Lawrence hit a 3-pointer in response.
• The Terriers never allowed Miami to blow the game wide open for their sixth 20+ point win but were unable to get any closer, as they went 3-of-15 the rest of the game.

THE SETUP

• After the Hurricanes scored the game's first four points, Hankerson hit a 3-pointer at 18:21 to put the Terriers on the board.
• Sophomore Max Mahoney tied the contest (8-8) at 15:36 on a nice feed from senior Eric Johnson, but the Hurricanes went on a 9-2 spurt with the help of two 3-pointers.
• Chris Lykes' jumper at 8:58 extended Miami's lead to 23-15, its largest of the half.
• Freshman Javante McCoy hit a 3-pointer, and sophomore Tyler Scanlon added two more over the following four minutes to help cut the deficit to 27-26 at 3:51.
• Clinging to a 30-28 lead, Miami only attempted one field goal in the final 3:00 of the half, as the Hurricanes missed two 1-and-1 free throws and the Terriers grabbed four offensive rebounds.
• On the final possession of the half, Mahoney tipped in a missed tip-in attempt from Hankerson to put the score at 30-30 entering the locker room.
• Miami scored the first seven points of the second half and led 39-34 with 16:21 remaining before Walker drained four 3-pointers during a 16-4 run capped at 12:38.
• Scanlon hit his third and final 3-pointer on the ensuing possession to help spark a 9-0 run capped by Hankerson's layup and free throw at 8:47.

GAME NOTES

• BU's nine steals were the most recorded by an opponent against the Hurricanes this season.
• Miami was held 11 points below its season average.
• The Terriers became the first opponent in five games at the Watsco Center to score at least 30 points in the first half.  
• Mahoney (6-of-10 FG) reached double figures for the second consecutive game, finishing three shy of last week's career-high 15-point performance at New Hampshire.
• Besides reaching double figures (10 pts.), Hankerson tallied a team-high three assists with two steals.
• Scanlon contributed nine points and three steals with a team-high six rebounds alongside freshman Walter Whyte.
• Miami's Walker (9-of-15 FG, 5-of-7 3FG) finished with a season-high 26 points and seven rebounds, while DJ Vasiljevic had 15 points.
• Miami improved to 2-0 all-time against the Terriers in their first meeting since 1965.
• Head coach Joe Jones is now 2-3 against the Atlantic Coast Conference and 0-5 against ranked teams with the Terriers.

NEXT UP: BETHUNE-COOKMAN

• The Terriers will remain in the Sunshine State and visit MEAC school Bethune-Cookman on Friday, Dec. 8 at 7 p.m.
• The teams will meet for the first time in program history.

QUOTES

Miami Head Coach Jim Larranaga

Opening Statement:

"I was a little concerned at halftime that Boston University seemed to be quicker to the ball, quicker to the rebounds. They just played with a little more energy and execution than we did. We didn't really make any adjustments at halftime, we just told them they needed to play harder and better, execute better and I thought we did. Obviously, Lonnie Walker had an excellent breakout game – 26 points, seven rebounds, a couple of assists; DJ Vasiljevic shot the ball well again and I thought in the second half our defense was much improved."

Boston University Head Coach Joe Jones

On thoughts about how Boston University played tonight:

"It was a transition because we had some injuries and we were having a hard time getting our guys to really compete to the level that you know they can play. The last game we played we really competed and we were able to use that and get some momentum into this game and thought we carried it over and really rallied and competed, but we just weren't good enough to beat a really good team."

On Lonnie Walker's ability:

"He's going through the year and shooting under 30 from three. I'm watching him warm up before the game and he's banging shots and I go, 'oh my God, if he starts making some of these shots, it's going to be tough.' Then you get up on him and he goes right by you, but he made three or four shots that we can't defend. We try to keep him out of the lane, try to make him shoot over us, but his ability to make threes made us extend more, but then he started getting other things because we had to extend. He's a tough guy to match up against because he's a big, strong kid and tonight he made threes from deep. He's 5-for-7 from three. If we go into the game and you told me he was 5-for-7 from three, we're not winning the game. I'll tell you that right now. I thought he was the difference, other guys could have done other things, but he was the difference."