Miami @ Virginia preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 13, 2018 ) Virginia 59, Miami-Florida 50

Miami finishes off its grueling stretch of games against ranked foes - its fourth in the last five games - when it visits No. 3 Virginia on Saturday. The Hurricanes have lost four in a row after falling to No. 12 Virginia Tech on Wednesday and now they face a Cavaliers team that needs just one victory to extend its school record for consecutive 20-win seasons to eight.

Win No. 19 wasn't easy for the Cavaliers, however, as they relinquished a 14-point lead in the second half and needed overtime to outlast N.C. State 66-65 on Tuesday. "We made enough good plays and hung in there and got some good lifts from guys," Virginia head coach Tony Bennett told reporters afterward. "I thought we had some chances to separate a little bit, but they made some big plays. We're thankful for the win, but we need to grow from this and learn from it. We brought losing into the equation when I didn't know we had to in certain situations with fouls and turnovers and unsound decisions." The defensive-minded Cavaliers got away from their game in the win, committing a season-high 16 turnovers and giving up 16 offensive boards, but they don't figure to have much trouble getting back to business against a short-handed Hurricanes team struggling to find itself, although coach Jim Larranaga was optimistic following Wednesday's 82-70 loss to Virginia Tech. "You might be surprised about what I'm going to say, but there was a time in the second half where I thought we played our best basketball for about a six- or seven-minute period," Larranaga told reporters. "Things we want to do every day, every game, play hard at the defensive end of the floor, get stops, share the ball on offense, find the open man, penetrate and pitch, get touches, get everyone involved and quite frankly, we haven't been doing that. It's very frustrating. It's frustrating for the players, it's frustrating for the coaching staff. ... Hopefully, it's a lesson that will prove to be helpful for us for the remainder of the season."

TV: 2 p.m. ET, Raycom

ABOUT MIAMI (9-11, 1-7 ACC): The Hurricanes are off to their worst start in conference action since they went 0-18 in Big East play back in 1993-94, but they have competed hard, holding a second-half lead in 16 games. Guard Chris Lykes bounced back from an 0-for-12 performance in the previous game with a team-high 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting against Virginia Tech, while senior guard Anthony Lawrence finished just shy of a double-double with 15 points and nine rebounds but suffered a hip flexor that limited his minutes. Lawrence's injury is a concern since the team only has seven scholarship players on the roster and guard Zach Johnson (10 points) is also playing with a sore ankle.

ABOUT VIRGINIA (19-1, 7-1): While the Cavaliers surrendered 65 points to N.C. State last time out, the last 10 actually came in overtime, leaving Duke, in the team's only loss (72-70), as the only ACC team to reach 60 points against Virginia in regulation. The Cavaliers still rank first in the nation in scoring defense (53.2 ppg), 3-point field goal percentage defense (25.0) turnovers per game (8.8) and overall turnovers (175), although they did give it away 16 times in that N.C. State win. Guards De'Andre Hunter (15 points), Ty Jerome (12) and Kyle Guy (10) are the only Cavs averaging more than 10 points for the season and they were the team's leading scorers against N.C. State.

TIP-INS

1. The Hurricanes have a slim 12-10 series advantage, but Virginia defeated Miami 59-50 last season.

2. Ten of the last 11 meetings were decided by nine points or less.

3. The Cavaliers are riding a 12-game home winning streak.

PREDICTION: Virginia 69, Miami 56