March Madness Champions

By Danielle Jackson, Sports Reporter

After all the tears have been shed and the brackets have been busted, we’ve finally made it to the finals championship.

UCONN raises their championship trophy. Photo By: Karolina A. Martinez [Public domain]
UCONN raises their championship trophy. Photo By: Karolina A. Martinez [Public domain]
Starting off with the women, after having a dominating season winning all 43 games to get to this point, the Huskies were trying to make history. The UCONN Huskies could have been  the first team in history to win the national title 4 years in a row, but it was up to Syracuse to make sure that history was not made. After coming from their upset win against South Carolina, the Orange made it known that they meant business. When the game started, the Huskies already showed their dominance by taking a 28-13 lead after the first quarter. Once the Huskies got settled, it was all scoring for them as they outscored Syracuse by a total of 32 points. The Huskies proved to everyone that one team can be the best for 4 consecutive years as the Huskies win their 4th title and were crowned the national champions once again beating Syracuse 82-51.

The success for the Huskies was mostly thanks to their star forward Breanna Stewart. Stewart performed night in and night out to average about 21 points per game for her Huskies. Stewart was also announced the tournament MVP for the 4th consecutive year which is a record for the most MVP’s by any player. Breanna Stewart has led her Huskies to a championship since her freshman year at UCONN.

Kris Jenkins shoots the game winning shot. Photo by: Novanut35
Kris Jenkins shoots the game winning shot. Photo by: Novanut35

Next, we have the men’s championship. Being the tournament favorites everyone was there to see the North Carolina Tar Heels take the championship. Even the great Michael Jordan showed up to support his Tar Heels. Villanova, the 2nd seeded team no one suspected to make it this far, showed that they weren’t just any team to forget about they were something special. The game was fairly challenged due to the fact that both teams were there to play their best basketball. The Tar heels took an early lead after the first half by leading by 5 points, but that lead wasn’t being held for long once Villanova started knocking down threes which pushed their lead to a 10 point lead with less than 2 minutes left in the game.

Once things started to get tense, one big play was needed for the Tar heels to tie the game with only less than a minute left in the game. One Tar Heel stepped up and answered the challenge Marcus Paige threw up an off-balance three and celebrated as it rattled in to tie the game. With no timeouts, Villanova had to either force a shot to send it to overtime or find a good look to win the title. As time winds down, all the fans were standing to see history about to be made as the Wildcats came down the court a  dribble hand-off pass went to Kris Jenkins as he took the shot and made the buzzer-beating three. Winning the game at the buzzer, beating the Tar heels 77-74, gave the Villanova Wildcats their first NCAA title since 1985. 

Villanova raises their championship title. Photo By Ijhaniff (Own work)
Villanova raises their championship title. Photo By Ijhaniff (Own work)