For a four-year starter, it’s hard to put up a career high, given the body of work that one would accumulate. But Durand Scott made the ACC Tournament semifinals his career night.
Scott scored 32 points on 12-of-18 shooting from the field to lead top-seeded Miami to an 81-71 win over North Carolina State on Saturday.
Scott came into the game averaging 12.8 points per game on 46 percent shooting from the field and 31 percent shooting from three-point range, so there’s certainly a track record there. And then there’s his breakout performance in the ACC Tournament as a freshman, when he led an upstart Miami team to the semifinals and earned first-team All-Tournament honors in the process.
“When I walked into the building, a lot of people remembered me and they were like, Do you remember this building and how you did your freshman year? And they reminded me of my performance, but that was the past. That (performance) can’t win us the game today, yesterday, or tomorrow. So I had to go out there and do what I had to do for my team to win and that’s what I did tonight,” Scott said.
Scott got Miami off the blocks after a sluggish start, scoring 14 of the Canes’ first 19 and hitting for 19 overall in the first half to stake UM to a 12-point halftime lead.
He then hit a key three in the second half after State had cut the deficit to six at the 11:45 mark and threatened in the process to make things interesting.
Scott held his follow-through a tick longer than normal, something he was asked about after the game.
“No, it was just a shot,” he said. “I knew I had to get myself into position to shoot and my coach was telling me to hold my follow through and that’s probably the longest I’ve ever held my follow through.”
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