NCAA Victory for Villanova
April 5, 2016
In the championship game of the 2016 NCAA Men’s Final Four, Kris Jenkins (in the number 2 jersey), a forward for the Villanova Wildcats, hits the game winning shot with 0.6 seconds left in the game against North Carolina. Credit: © Bob Donnan, USA TODAY Sports/Reuters
A three-point, buzzer-beating jump shot clinched the victory for Pennsylvania’s Villanova over North Carolina in the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament last evening. In an exciting game of multiple lead changes, the No. 1 seed North Carolina Tar Heels were up 39-34 at halftime before the No. 2 seed Villanova Wildcats came roaring back to take their largest lead of the game—67-57 with 5:29 to go. The Tar Heels came back to close the margin to three points with 14 seconds left on the clock, then North Carolina senior guard Marcus Paige tied the game at 74 with a wild three-point jumper.
With just 4.7 seconds left in the game, the Wildcats inbounded the ball and scrambled down the court. A pass from Villanova point guard Ryan Arcidiacono to teammate forward Kris Jenkins behind the arc gave Jenkins just enough time to shoot a clean three-point shot with less than a second to go to take the title with a final score of 77-74. With that last pass of his college basketball career, senior Arcidiacono became a national champion and was later named Final Four Most Outstanding Player.
For Villanova, it is its second national title—the first was in 1985, when the underdog Wildcats shocked Georgetown and won by a bucket. Villanova advanced to the championship game this year after setting a record for margin of victory in a Final Four semifinal, beating No. 2 seed Oklahoma 95-51. The Wildcats also knocked out No. 1 seed Kansas when they went head to head in the Elite Eight with a score of 64-59.
North Carolina saw victories over No. 6 Notre Dame in the Elite Eight before blowing out No. 10 Syracuse in the Final Four to meet Villanova in the championship.
This year’s March Madness tournament lived up to its nickname, as low-seeded teams picked off the powerhouses at the tops of the brackets in early rounds, but left all four No. 1 seeds—Kansas, North Carolina, Oregon, and Virginia—unscathed up until the Elite Eight before all outside of North Carolina were sent home before the Final Four.
Tonight, the women’s NCAA Championship game will be played between top overall seed and commanding powerhouse Connecticut (UConn) and No. 4 seed Syracuse. UConn’s women are hoping to win the title for the fourth consecutive year tonight.
Other World Book articles:
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)
NCAA Men’s Basketball Champions (a Timeline)
NCAA Women’s Basketball Champions (a Timeline)
