Canes Come Home After Sweet 16 Loss
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- The Miami Hurricanes are back home after taking a tough loss to Villanova Thursday night.
CBS4's Donna Rapado joined them as they arrived at the Bank United Center in Coral Gables.
"When you win and things go your way, you don't complain and you don't ask why it's happening so you shouldn't do that when you lose. You should accept it the way other teams lose and reality is, two teams play. One wins, one loses," said the team's sparkplug point guard Angel Rodriguez.
The Miami Hurricanes were confident going into the Sweet 16 battle but ended up falling to Villanova, 92-69.
"We ran into a very hot-shooting Villanova team. We shot the ball very well and played well. They just played fantastic. And you gotta give them credit. And our guys, I'm very proud of them and it was a privilege to coach them this year," said head coach Jim Larranaga.
The Villanova Wildcats are putting on quite the clinic in the NCAA Tournament with their latest performance putting them into the Elite Eight for the first time since 2009.
Ryan Arcidiacono and Kris Jenkins each scored 21 points and No. 2 seed Villanova never trailed in routing third-seeded Miami 92-69 Thursday night in the South Region semifinal of the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats turned in their best shooting performance yet in this tournament, shooting 62.7 percent.
"If any team is shooting the way we're shooting right now, they'll easily be the most dangerous team in the country," Villanova senior forward Daniel Ochefu said. "But hopefully, we'll keep shooting like that, so we can keep playing the way we are."
The Wildcats (32-5) earned their third trip to the regional final with coach Jay Wright and seventh overall, coming through with former coach Rollie Massimino, who led Villanova to the 1985 national championship, sitting nearby.
Villanova will play top-seeded Kansas on Saturday in the regional final. It's redemption after losses on the opening weekend each of the past two NCAA Tournaments.
"These last couple years and a couple early exits wasn't the best thing for our program, but I think we just remain humble and try to get back," Arcidiacono said. "It's just a great feeling."
Ochefu added 17 points, and Josh Hart had 14 for Villanova, which shot 62.7 percent (32 of 51).
Miami (27-8) now is 0-3 in this round and 0-2 with coach Jim Larranaga.
"They're just an incredible offensive team," Larranaga said of Villanova. "We had no way to stop them."
Sheldon McClellan scored 26 points for Miami, tying a career-high making five 3s. Angel Rodriguez added 13.
Miami got there by beating a pair of double-digit seeds, Buffalo and Wichita State. Villanova showed the team from the Atlantic Coast Conference why the Wildcats were ranked No. 1 in the nation for the first time in program history earlier this season.
It was the first game between the teams in the NCAA Tournament, and the first overall since March 2004, when both teams were in the Big East.
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