CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Annoyed about his team’s effort, Miami Hurricanes coach Jim Larranaga grabbed a ball in the locker room at halftime and challenged his players one by one to wrestle it away from him.

The impromptu drill gave the Hurricanes some needed energy, which carried over to a decisive scramble. Point guard Angel Rodriguez scored on an offensive rebound with 1.4 seconds left, and No. 12 Miami edged Pittsburgh 65-63 on Tuesday night.

“That was a major league play for the smallest guy on the floor to go over everybody, time it right and just tip it in,” Larranaga said.

The Hurricanes (19-4, 8-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) trailed by eight points in the first half but won for the sixth time in the past seven games.

Pittsburgh (17-6, 6-5) has lost two straight for the first time this season.

“They got the break at the end,” coach Jamie Dixon said. “Just one of those things. Don’t know what we could have done different.”

With the game tied, the Hurricanes missed two shots in the final 6 seconds and Pitt’s Ryan Luther batted the ball before the 5-foot-11 Rodriguez charged into the lane and slapped a rebound into the basket with his left — non-shooting — hand.

“It took a bit to sink in — ‘Did I actually tip that in?”’ Rodriguez said. “It was just shocking. Once I told myself, `Yes you did — celebrate,’ I started going crazy.”

That was the only offensive rebound of the game for Rodriguez, who had 17 points and eight assists.

“I don’t know why in the world Angel went to the offensive boards,” Larranaga said. “Point guards are really not supposed to do that. But he didn’t listen to me throughout the game anyway, so I’m glad he didn’t listen at the end.”

Larranaga was joking, but he wasn’t so happy about the Hurricanes’ early play. The Panthers led for most of the first half, and their largest margin was 27-19.

So the 66-year-old Larranaga had his players wrestle him for the ball, which sent the needed message.

“He really wanted us to be passionate and play with energy,” Rodriguez said. “It ended up working. It got everybody going.”

Miami outscored Pitt 15-4 to start the second half, but the Panthers rallied twice and tied it on James Robinson’s 3-pointer with 31 seconds left.

“I was proud of how we responded,” Dixon said. “We were in a very good position to win the game.”