Sheldon McClellan scored 22 points, Ja'Quan Newton made two big 3-pointers in the second half and No. 13 Miami relied on defense to get past Syracuse 64-51 on Saturday.
Newton finished with 14 points for Miami (12-1, 1-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), which blew it open with a 12-0 run in the final minutes to win its seventh straight.
Miami shot only 35 percent, but held Syracuse to 32 percent. The Hurricanes missed their first 16 3-point attempts and finished 3 for 25 from beyond the arc.
Malachi Richardson scored 20 points for Syracuse (10-5, 0-2), which has dropped its first two games of league play for the first time since it started the 1998-99 Big East season 0-2.
Michael Gbinije added 10 points for the Orange, who were outscored 47-26 in the second half.
Newton had seven career 3-pointers entering Saturday, in 46 games with the Hurricanes. Newton was 2 for 2 from 3-point range Saturday, while his teammates went a combined 1 for 23.
Ivan Cruz Uceda's 3-pointer, Miami's first of the game in 17 tries, midway through the second half put the Hurricanes on top 33-32. That started a spurt of eight Miami points in 38 seconds, and the Hurricanes would eventually push the lead to seven.
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Syracuse answered with a 10-3 run to tie the game at 44, but Newton's second 3-pointer of the game put Miami back on top, this time for good.
He then added two free throws, Angel Rodriguez got his first points of the game when he got a steal and turned it into a three-point play with 3:47 left, and the Hurricanes would survive.
Syracuse shot only 32 percent in the first half, and was still up comfortably at the break.
The Orange led 25-17 after the first 20 minutes, absolutely frustrating a Miami team that came in averaging 85 points on 51 percent shooting. The Hurricanes were shooting only 19 percent at the break _ and missed all 11 of their tries from 3-point range. And if not for McClellan managing 11 points by halftime, it could have been much worse for Miami.
TIP-INS
Syracuse: Mike Hopkins is 4-4 as the replacement for Orange coach Jim Boeheim, who is one game from satisfying the nine-game suspension handed down as part of Syracuse's NCAA sanctions. The Orange have lost six straight road games going back to last season _ that doesn't count their three neutral-site wins at the Battle 4 Atlantis in November _ and have dropped their last five ACC games.
Miami: The Hurricanes improved to 4-8 in their ACC openers. It was the second straight slow start for Miami, which had 27 first-half points against Princeton. Until Saturday, that was Miami's season-low for a half. Miami improved to 7-1 at home.
ORANGE EVERYWHERE
The seats at Bank United Center were mostly filled with orange-clad fans _ which, ordinarily, would be a good thing for Miami and its orange-and-green color scheme. But included in that crowd was a contingent of about 2,500 Syracuse backers, many of whom made the trip from Central New York as an escape now that winter has finally seemed to strike. Temperatures at game time: 80 in Coral Gables, 32 in Syracuse.
UP NEXT:
Syracuse: Hosts Clemson on Tuesday.
Miami: Hosts Florida State on Jan. 9.
