Villanova Tops North Carolina 77-74 on Jenkins' Buzzer-Beater
By Eddie Pells ••
Villanova’s buzzer-beating victory over North Carolina in the National Championship game sent fans into a frenzy.
Kris Jenkins is one of those players who believes every shot is going in.
Sometimes, it feels so right to be right.
Fans at XFinity Live as well as fans watching the game live in Houston reacted to Kris Jenkins’ incredible buzzer beater that gave Villanova a 77-74 victory over North Carolina in the NCAA Championship Game Monday night. Take a look.
The Villanova junior answered a double-clutch, game-tying 3-pointer by North Carolina's Marcus Paige with a buzzer-beating 3 of his own Monday night to lift the Wildcats to a 77-74 victory and the national championship Monday night.
One good shot deserved another.
NBC10’s Matt DeLucia recaps the mind-blowing, buzzer-beating game and the aftermath of the Villanova Men’s Basketball Team’s NCAA National Championship.
"I think every shot's going in," he said, "and this one was no different."
Excited fans celebrated after Villanova’s incredible 77-74 victory over North Carolina in the NCAA Championship game. NBC10’s Denise Nakano was in Bryn Mawr for the celebration.
The shot came on a play Villanova works on every day in practice: Jenkins inbounds the ball to Ryan Arcidiacono, he works it up court and forward Daniel Ochefu sets a pick near halfcourt to clutter things up, then Arcidiacono creates.
This time, the senior point guard made an underhanded flip to Jenkins, who spotted up a pace or two behind the arc and swished it with Carolina's Isaiah Hicks running at him. Or, as Jenkins put it: "One, two step, shoot 'em up, sleep in the streets." [[374577771, C]]
Jenkins had to come up big after Paige collected a pass on the top right side of the arc and, with Arcidiacono running at him, double clutched and pumped it in to tie the game at 74 with 4.7 seconds left.
Fans celebrated in the streets after Villanova defeated North Carolina 77 to 74 in the NCAA Championship Game. NBC10’s Aundrea Cline-Thomas was there for the celebration.
Fans went into a frenzy after Kris Jenkins hit a buzzer beater to give the Villanova Wildcats a 77-74 win over the North Carolina Tar Heels in the national championship game Monday night. NBC10’s Brandon Hudson was there for the incredible celebrations.
Oh yes, they could.
This adds to the title Villanova won in 1985, when Rollie Massimino, who was on hand Monday night, coaxed a miracle out of his eighth-seeded underdogs for a victory over star-studded Georgetown.
Hard to top this one, though.
Jenkins, who was adopted by the family of North Carolina guard Nate Britt when his mother moved to take a coaching job, now has a spot alongside — and probably above — Keith Smart, Lorenzo Charles, Christian Laettner and everyone else who ever made a late game-winner to win a big one in March Madness.
Paige finished with 21 and Joel Berry II had 20 for the Heels (33-7), the only No. 1 seed to make the Final Four. They came one agonizing shot short of giving Williams his third national title.
Not surprisingly, the tears flowed from the 65-year-old coach who, some speculate, could have worked his last game on the sideline; the entire sports program at Chapel Hill is under NCAA scrutiny and awaiting possible penalties for a long-running academic-fraud case.
"I'm not very good because I can't take away the hurt," Williams said. "I told them I loved them. I told them I wish I could have helped them more."
His thought when he saw the last shot fly: "It was helpless. It was not a good feeling."
Even MJ felt the pain. In the stands with the thousands of Carolina Blue-wearing fans, Michael Jordan simply nodded, smiled, looked at his buddy Ahmad Rashad and said, "Good shot, good shot."
High praise from the Great One. And what a night for Villanova (35-5) — a second-seeded team full of scrappers, grinders and also-rans, who proved you don't have to have a roster full of NBA-bound one-and-doners to win a title. More people in the ESPN bracket contest picked 'Nova to lose to a No. 15 seed in the first round than to win the whole thing. This team flamed out early in the last two tournaments despite big expectations.
Not this time.
Before Jenkins did his thing, it was unheralded sophomore Phil Booth — who isn't unheralded on that Villanova squad? — pouring in a career high 20 points to give the Cats their late six-point lead.
Booth forced a turnaround jumper with the shot-clock blaring to give 'Nova a 69-64 lead at the 3:03 mark. With 1:52 left, a free throw from Josh Hart pushed the lead to six.
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But Carolina never quits. Paige sandwiched a 3-pointer and a putback around a bucket from Brice Johnson (14 points, eight rebounds) to help the Tar Heels stay within striking range. Then, he took a bounce pass, scooted by the diving Ochefu, twisted past Arcidiacono and hit his double-clutch.
Carolina fans went wild, and it looked like overtime.
Only, it wasn't.
"If I could get a shot, I was going to shoot it," said Arcidiacono, who finished with 16 points and two assists, one more memorable than the other. "But I heard someone screaming in the back of my head. It was Kris. I just gave it to him and he let it go with confidence."
