In two games decided by seven points or less, the NIT Tournament Championship match up was decided Tuesday night. The Stanford Cardinal will square off against the Miami Hurricanes on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.
NIT scores and bracket 2015: Miami, Stanford advance to NIT Championship
It’ll be ‘Canes and Cardinal in the finale at Madison Square Garden
In the night's first game, Miami withstood a poor first half performance to earn a 60-57 win over the Temple Owls. A defense packing in the lane, Temple forcing turnovers and opportunities in transition gave the Owls a first half lead. But the Owls shot 0-for-15 in the second half from deep to let Miami crawl back into the contest and get away with a victory as Temple bricked two wide-open attempts at the game's end.
The Hurricanes outscored the Owls 35-27 in the second set to nab the victory, all of which came without their star guard Angel Rodriguez, who is nursing an injured wrist. Sheldon McClellan scored 16 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to pace Miami.
Stanford in the nightcap ran out to an early lead then held on for a 67-60 victory over the Old Dominion Monarchs.
The Cardinal originally jumped out to a 15-0 lead, but allowed the Monarchs to go on a 12-0 run of their own near the end of the half to make it a six-point game by the halftime buzzer. Behind Chasson Randle's 24 points, Stanford closed out the surging Monarchs and made their way to the NIT title game.
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