THE UNIVERSITY OF North Carolina Tar Heels, who fell agonisingly short of the goal last year, beat the Gonzaga Bulldogs 71-65 to claim the coveted US college basketball national championship.
The Tar Heels won their sixth March Madness title at the University of Phoenix Stadium, where center Kennedy Meeks’s block on Nigel Williams-Goss set up a fastbreak dunk by Justin Jackson with 12 seconds to play that sealed North Carolina’s win.
Last year the Tar Heels’ title bid was sunk by a last-second shot by Villanova’s Kris Jenkins in the title game.
“They wanted redemption,” said North Carolina coach Roy Williams, who became the sixth coach to win three or more NCAA championships.
“One of the things we had to be tonight was tough enough. I think this group was tough enough.”
This year’s championship showcase featured a welter of fouls and missed shots by both teams.
But it offered plenty of drama, with the outcome in doubt in the final minute.
Forward Isaiah Hicks’s jump shot with 26 seconds left gave North Carolina a 68-65 lead before Williams-Goss, who had scored eight straight points for Gonzaga, was blocked on the other end.
North Carolina point guard Joel Berry made two free throws with seven seconds remaining to finish with a game-high 22 points.
Berry, who sprained both ankles during the tournament, made all four of North Carolina’s three-pointers and was named Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.
“My teammates believed in me,” he said. “My teammates said just keep on pushing. I couldn’t do it without them. I wasn’t 100% but I gave it my all.”
Gonzaga, the small-school perennial contender who had made it to the Final Four for the first time in their 19th straight appearance in the national tournament, missed nine consecutive shots in the second half, going more than eight minutes without a basket.
Not a bad weekend for Irish sport!
Not a bad w/e !! Been a fantastic Ireland 6 Nations champions, Liverpool beating Man U. And then cricketers winning whoooooHoooo
Liverpool and Man Utd are Irish?
And Dublin lost and Meath won in the football.
Ireland never lost a game on St.Patrick day.. What a win !!
Zimbabwe were still the seeded team in the group so it’s a great start to the tournament. Should put Holland and UAE away now to get through to the next stage!
Should never have come down to tje final ball but what a great start. Thrilling cricket
We love winning Cricket matches on Patrick’s Day. Always drama vs Zimbabwe. Remember last ball game in 2007 for a tie.
Ger , I backed them in Cheltenham that year.Corals said I was the only one to have a bet on them so they gave me the 6/4 for the tie
Those previous performances were in the 50-over version of the game. It’s quite different from T20, which is just all-out attack.
And then the article changes and my comment made no sense…
I won snakes and ladders this morning
I won a game of tidlywinks
…and we’re proud of both of you too.
Matt, that means so much to me!
Cricket … Rugby …… We have finally become the Europeans we were meant to be!!!!!!!
Not so much of a “surprise”. After all, Ireland are ranked ahead of Zimbabwe in T20 cricket.
It was a surprise to the 4 million of us who didn’t know until now!
This is certainly Ireland’s Sporting Weekend…well done…
The bandwagon will be departing shortly from platform 5. Could anyone with minimal knowledge of cricket, a large leprechaun hat, and a confused sense of patriotism please make their way immediately to platform 5. Thank you.
Did u enjoy the rugby?
Last bus to Bah-humbug leaves BusAras at 3pm – be on it.
Jesus,I hope I’m not sitting beside you. Anyone want to swap seats?
Silent,did Ireland score many touchdowns in the cricket today versus the African Tigers?
Does the journal have access to a murray kinsella of the cricket world who can do some explainer pieces on the different formats of cricket and what everything means? Would love to get excited about what the lads are doing but the vasy majority of the article went completely over my head! !!
Hi Barry,
An explainer of sorts went up on the site this morning. Here’s a link to it: http://jrnl.ie/1366631
Well done, Ireland. Great way to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day!
There was a few minutes there where I thought we were once again going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, hope we learn from this and make it more difficult to lose wickets.
Great result can push on and take the UAE and the Dutch. The dutch would usually quite strong. But I wonder how the controversy is effecting their squad. If we get to the super 10s I think we are in the tougher group, Aussies, Indies, India, Pakistan. I think we will struggle to get a win there, but the indies are there for the taking with a bit of luck.
If we can get the two more wins and top the group we will go through to the Super 10′s in Group 1 with the following teams and the following fixtures
Group 1
March 24th v Sri Lanka – Chittagong 1.30pm Irish Time
March 27th v South Africa – Chittagong 9.30am Irish Time
March 29th v New Zealand – Chittagong 9.30am Irish Time
March 31st v England – Chittagong 9.30am Irish Time
http://www.cricketireland.ie/news/article/icc-world-twenty20-preview-by-ger-siggins
#COYBIG