Miami rallies in second half to stun Stanford

Malik Reneau scored 20 points to lead the Miami Hurricanes to a 79-70 home win over the Stanford Cardinal in a coast-to-coast ACC conflict on Wednesday.

Reneau shot 6-of-10 from the floor, including 7-of-9 from the free-throw line. It was his second straight 20-point performance, and 12th of the season. At 19.6 points per game, the senior, who transferred from Indiana, remains one of the top scorers in the ACC.

Second on the conference scoring list is Stanford’s Ebuka Okorie, who led the Cardinal with 19 points on 8-of-21 shooting.

Tre Donaldson and Reneau each scored 13 points to lead the Hurricanes in the first half. Miami struggled from the three-point line (2-of-7) and was kept afloat at the free-throw line, making 7-of-11.

The Cardinal shot 7-of-14 from the three-point line to propel their first-half surge. Benny Gealer went on to finish with 5-of-8 from the arc to build on his 17-point night.

The Cardinal went into halftime leading 40-35 after going on a 14-5 run through the final five minutes. Stanford shot three triples during that run to make up for a slow start in which the Cardinal trailed 11-2 through the first four minutes.

Stanford stretched its lead to nine points in the second half after a jump shot from Okorie led to a 47-38 margin.

The Hurricanes stormed back and outscored the Cardinal 13-4 before a three-pointer by Donaldson tied the game 51-51 with 9:35 remaining. He finished with 18 points.

After tying the game again with seven minutes left in the game on a triple by Dante Allen, the Hurricanes went on an 18-6 run to lead 71-61 with 1:20 left in the game.

The Hurricanes rallied in the second half by making half of their 28 field goals while holding Stanford to 35.5% (11 of 31) from the floor.

Shelton Henderson and Tru Washington added 12 points apiece for the Hurricanes (17-4, 6-2 Atlantic Coast Conference), bounced back with two straight wins after a two-game skid ended a 10-game win streak.

From Northern California to South Florida, you couldn’t find a longer road trip between conference opponents. The Cardinal have been reeling recently, losing four of their last five games, with a 95-90 home win over North Carolina standing on an island. Stanford (14-7, 3-5 ACC) travels to ACC bottom-feeder Florida State on Saturday while Miami hosts Cal, which fell to the struggling Seminoles on Wednesday.