End of the road: Miami's season comes to a close with loss to Virginia Tech in 2nd round of ACC tourney

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Kerry Blackshear had 19 points and 10 rebounds to help No. 16 Virginia Tech beat Miami 71-56 in the second round of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament on Wednesday.

Ty Outlaw added 14 points — all in the first half — points for the fifth-seeded Hokies (24-7), who never trailed after scoring the game’s first 11 points. The Hokies ran out to a 20-point lead before halftime, then turned away Miami’s last serious push early in the second half with a 20-5 run that increased the margin past 20 again.

Virginia Tech shot 50 percent, including 11 of 27 on 3-pointers, to beat the 12th-seeded Hurricanes for a third time this season — all by double-figure margins.

Chris Lykes scored 19 points for Miami (14-18) which beat Wake Forest in Tuesday’s first round. But the Hurricanes never gave themselves much of a chance on Day 2, falling behind big from the jump.

BIG PICTURE

Miami: The Hurricanes’ win against the Demon Deacons ensured they would win at least one game in the ACC Tournament in seven of Jim Larranaga’s eight seasons as coach. That turned out to be the only highlight in a two-day stay in Charlotte at the end of a frustrating season, which included Lykes — the team’s 5-foot-7 leading scorer at 16.2 points — behind helped off after he suffered an apparent right-leg injury when landing on a layup with 3:24 left. Larranaga has his first losing season since going 9-18 in his first year at George Mason in 1997-98, and he had won at least 20 games in six of his first seven seasons with the Hurricanes.

Virginia Tech: The Hokies won’t have point guard Justin Robinson for the ACC Tournament as he continues to deal with a foot injury that has sidelined him since late January. That wasn’t a problem in their tournament debut in a game they were expected to win.