Overcoming Adversity Worst to First
After being on the disappointing side of making history, one year later the Virginia Cavaliers make history to win their first ever NCAA Championship. This was no easy journey. After last year, each player on the team could have gave up and transferred to a different school. Well, guess what? they didn’t.
They decided to stay and now are they sure they did because they made history. They went from being the first ever one seed to be knocked off by a sixteen seed to winning the tournament the next year. Now that is a quite a quick a turnaround.
Virginia Dodges Another Close Call
Virginia escaped another close call in the championship game. They had the lead in both halves then Texas Tech came back. Eventually, they took the lead over Virginia in the second half. It looked like the Cavaliers were about to go down, but they tied the game up. Then, with the game on the line, they came up huge in crunch time on defense. They blocked the three point attempt by Texas Tech to have a shot to win the game. This sent the game to overtime. In overtime, it looked as if the result was going to be the same.
Virginia Cavaliers Makes History
This game was a defensive thriller that came down to offense. It came down who can make their free throws and grab more rebounds. Virginia had less players in double figures. However, their players not in double digits provided energy off the bench. They also grabbed rebounds. Virginia out-rebounded Texas Tech 39-32, according to espn.com. The Cavaliers won this game because they passed the ball and earned trips to the free throw line.
As a team, they made 20-23 free throws, compared to their opponents who shot 13-15 from the foul line Kyle Guy, De’Andre Hunter, and Ty Jerome, were the only Cavaliers in double figures. They had a total of 15 assists to Texas Tech’s eight. Hunter led the way with 27 points, followed by Guy with 24, and Jerome with 16. Additionally, Jerome had nine assists, grabbed eight rebounds and was close to a triple-double. I mentioned in my previous article, Texas Tech had a chance to win if they pass the ball. In the end when it mattered, they didn’t pass the ball. They decided to try and win the game themselves. That is where they went wrong and why the Cavaliers won their first NCAA Championship.
