Shelton Henderson Shines as Miami Breaks Road Drought with Big Win Over Ole Miss
Shelton Henderson’s breakout performance wasn’t a surprise to Jai Lucas - not even close. Lucas, now an assistant on Miami’s staff, has known Henderson since the seventh grade.
He’s watched the freshman forward grow from a middle school standout into a top-25 national recruit. And on Tuesday night, in a tough ACC-SEC Challenge road matchup at Ole Miss, Henderson showed exactly why he came in with that kind of hype.
Henderson poured in a season-high 18 points and added nine rebounds, five steals, and two blocks - stuffing the stat sheet in a way that had the Hurricanes grinning on their way to a 75-66 win. It was Miami’s first road win in nearly 11 months, snapping a 16-game losing streak away from home, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
“This is who he is - this is who he’s always been,” Lucas said postgame. “He hadn’t quite looked like himself yet early in the season, but tonight he turned the corner.
I’ve been telling him, ‘Take a breath. It’s just basketball.’
And tonight, he played calm and collected. That’s the guy we’ve known since day one.”
Henderson set the tone early, scoring Miami’s first two buckets and notching nine points before the first media timeout. His energy on both ends of the floor helped the Hurricanes build a lead they’d never give back. And while he was the headliner, he wasn’t alone.
Tru Washington added 17 points, Malik Reneau chipped in 15, and Tre Donaldson added 11 - giving Miami four players in double figures and a well-balanced offensive attack. The Hurricanes also knocked down a season-high 11 threes, shooting 44% from beyond the arc, which helped them overcome a sloppy 19-turnover night.
“It was a total team effort,” Lucas said. “Whenever you can get four guys in double figures, you’re going to be in a good spot.
We weren’t perfect - 19 turnovers is a lot - but we battled. We won the glass, and we made the right plays when it mattered.”
Miami’s hot shooting was especially timely given how Ole Miss defended. The Rebels collapsed hard in the paint, daring the Hurricanes to beat them from deep - and Miami did just that. Lucas praised the quality of the looks his team generated, noting that the threes came off drive-and-kick sequences and extra passes - the kind of shots you want if you’re going to live from the perimeter.
“We’re a good shooting team when we take the right ones,” Lucas said. “Tonight, we took the right ones - we moved the ball, we made the extra pass, and we knocked them down.”
The win moves Miami to 7-2 on the season and gives the program its first-ever win in the ACC-SEC Challenge, now in its third year. It also gave the ACC a 4-2 edge in the event with 10 games still to be played.
“Winning on the road is hard - period,” Lucas said. “So to come in here, in this kind of environment, and get a win like this, it’s big.
It helps our resume, and it helps the league. We did our part.”
Miami shot 49.1% from the field overall and controlled the game for most of the night. After Donaldson knocked down back-to-back threes to push the lead to 21-14 midway through the first half, the Hurricanes never looked back. They went into halftime up 42-26, having hit 8 of 15 from deep in the opening 20 minutes.
Henderson’s two-handed tip jam early in the second half pushed the lead to 49-31, and Miami would stretch it to as many as 19. Ole Miss made a couple of pushes - cutting the deficit to nine twice, the last time with just over five minutes to play - but never got closer than that until the final seconds.
Ole Miss, now 5-3, struggled to find rhythm offensively, shooting just 34.8% from the field (23-of-66). Miami’s defensive pressure, led by Henderson’s active hands and rim protection, made life difficult for the Rebels all night.
The Hurricanes pulled off the win despite being shorthanded. Top reserves Dante Allen (upper body) and Marcus Allen (lower body) were both sidelined. Dante is expected to miss multiple weeks, while Marcus is being evaluated on a game-to-game basis.
Next up: Miami returns home to face Southern Miss on Saturday at noon (ACCN). Coming off a confidence-boosting road win, the Hurricanes will look to keep the momentum rolling. If Henderson continues to play like this - and if the rest of the roster keeps clicking the way it did in Oxford - Miami could be building something real as conference play approaches.