Hurricanes blow 19-point lead in loss to Boston College in Bill Courtney’s interim coach debut

Everything started out so well for the Miami Hurricanes men’s basketball team on Wednesday in Bill Courtney’s debut as interim head coach after Jim Larranaga stepped down from his post last week. Miami raced out to a double-digit lead against Boston College in the opening five minutes and led by nearly 20 a little more than midway through the first half.

And then, as has been the case so many times in a trying start to this season, it all fell apart as Miami fell 78-68 to Boston College at the Silvio O. Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The Hurricanes (4-9, 0-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) have now lost eight consecutive games.

Led in large part by Matthew Cleveland (21 points, five rebounds, three blocks) and Lynn Kidd (14 points, eight rebounds, two blocks), Miami found itself up by as much as 32-13 in the first half before Boston College (9-5, 1-2 ACC) began mounting its comeback. Miami went 4 for 11 from the field over the final 8:38 of the first half and Boston College capitalized to cut its deficit to 12 points, 41-29, at halftime.

Miami’s cold shooting continued in the second half, with the Hurricanes making just 28.6 percent of their shots (10 for 35) over the final 20 minutes while Boston College found its stride. After trailing for all of the opening 30 minutes, the Eagles tied the game at 53-53 with 9:43 left to play. Miami briefly retook the lead on an Austin Swartz layup, but Roger McFarlane — a former standout at Davie NSU University School — hit a three-ponter on the following Boston College possession to give the Eagles their first lead at 56-55 with 8:52 left to play.

Boston College never trailed after that, outscoring Miami 22-13 to close out the game. Chad Venning led Boston College with 17 points and was one of five Eagles players to score in double figures.

It’s not the performance Courtney was hoping for after an emotional, tiring week that preceded it.

Courtney, who has been with Larranaga at Miami for the past six seasons and was also an assistant for him previously at Bowling Green and George Mason, spoke Tuesday about how difficult it was to process the news that Larranaga was stepping down.

“When I found out from coach, it’s obviously very upsetting for me because he’s been my mentor and my friend, very good friend for 28 years now and kind of went through that side of emotions,” Courtney said. “And then, after a day or two, you kind of realize that you’ve now got to start preparing for the next step. For us, we’ve got a whole slate of ACC games ahead of us. And we’ve got to be ready and get prepared to play ACC games.”

That preparation started immediately. Courtney said the team practiced shortly after Larranaga’s press conference announcing his resignation on Thursday, adding the team has shown “very good resiliency” since the announcement.

“It’s obviously something that no one expected, especially from their perspective, and a lot of these guys came here to play for Coach L, a legend in basketball, and it’s a difficult time for those guys,” Courtney said. “So the way they bounced back has been extremely impressive. They had tremendous energy in practice. They played together, they played very, very hard. I think they should be commended for that. I sort of look at them every day and I’m amazed at what they’re doing. As a coach and as a coaching staff, that helps us. Their energy has been infectious and hopefully our staff’s energy has been infectious to those guys also. They’ve done a great job of really locking in. You think sometimes when the assistant takes over, there’ll be a drop off or some slacks or some things that go by the wayside, but not this group. They’ve really been locked in and concentrated.”

That effort showed early on Thursday, but the team wasn’t able to sustain it throughout the game.

Next up for the Hurricanes is another road game against Virginia Tech on Saturday, with tip-off set for 2 p.m. and the game broadcast on the ACC Network. Courtney’s first home game as interim coach is Jan. 8 against Florida State.

▪ Nijel Pack missed his third consecutive game with a foot injury.