’Canes come up big in clutch

White-knuckle time — it usually brings out the very best and the very worst in teams as they try to win in the clutch.

With four minutes to play in Thursday night’s game, Miami showed why it is striving to become part of the NCAA conversation. Virginia showed why it isn’t.

Up until that point, the visiting Hurricanes were playing like a team without a future, just kind of hanging around and hoping that the host Cavaliers would falter. The strategy seemed to work.

Deadlocked at 55-all, Virginia came unglued. Didn’t score again. Turned the ball over and lost, 62-55.

McClinton’s late dagger
After doing an admirable job for more than 38 minutes of bottling up Miami’s most lethal weapon — guard Jack McClinton — the Cavaliers’ defense lost track of him at the most inopportune time. McClinton uncorked an open 3-pointer from the right corner with 47 seconds to go, essentially jabbing a dagger into any UVa hopes of winning.

The Hurricane star was held to 11 points, much to the credit of Calvin Baker’s defensive effort. However, five of those came when it counted most: at the end.

Meanwhile, the Cavaliers had no answer.

“This was a huge win for us,” said ‘Canes coach Frank Haith. “It wasn’t pretty, but our defense, particularly at the end of game was great. This was a statement that we can win without Jack having a monster game.”

Haith was spot on with his quick assessment.

Miami, once 4-8 in the ACC, is fighting for its postseason life. Now at 6-8, the Hurricanes can see the light with their next game at last-place Georgia Tech, then a home finale against so-so N.C. State. Run the table, make an impressive ACC Tournament appearance and who knows ... they could be dancing.

Haith was spot-on as well that the game wasn’t pretty. This contest would have finished second in an ugly contest.

Defense in the clutch
Still, it was a major deal that the ‘Canes had six straight defensive stops against Virginia to end the game. It was even bigger that some of Miami’s other players stepped up while McClinton, who averages 20.1 points per game, struggled.

Maybe Miami can win without its ace firing on all cylinders, but clearly, Virginia can’t.

Star freshman Sylven Landesberg was held to 13 points, a mere two in the second half, as the Miami zone took away his driving lanes most of the evening. When the ‘Canes manned-up, they used either an extra defender on him or had his defender sticking right with him.

Without Landesberg scoring, the Cavaliers struggled to find another to take up the slack. That is a common occurrence on a squad that doesn’t seem to have ACC-caliber talent.

The only other player who seemed to find his stroke was guard Jeff Jones, who led UVa in scoring for the night with 16 points.

However, coach Dave Leitao pulled Jones out of the lineup with 11:16 to play and seemed to forget about him for the next seven minutes.

Jones had just converted an old-fashioned three-point play to give Virginia a 43-40 lead when Leitao got out the hook.

After the game, the Cavs’ coach said that Jones had missed four specific defensive assignments and so he took him out and inserted Mustapha Farrakhan.

“I rode it [Jones’ on the bench] a little longer than I had intended,” Leitao said later.

While the thought of teaching a player a lesson for blowing defensive assignments is a noble one, can a coach really afford to pull his chief offensive threat for that long in a game that was up for grabs?

Maybe you can when you’re 3-10 (9-15 overall) and going nowhere.

Maybe Leitao is still trying to get his message across four months since practice began.

Just wait ‘til next year.