MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Virginia has punched their ticket to their first Men’s Basketball National Title game with a 63-62 last-second win over Auburn in Final Four action Saturday. Here’s how it all went down from US Bank Stadium in the first National Semi-Final of the evening!
Auburn won the tip-off after it went out of bounds on Virginia. However, it would be the Cavaliers getting the first basket of the game on a layup in the paint from Mamadi Diakite. Then it was Ty Jerome getting to the line where he made the front end of two free throws to put the Cavaliers on top 3-0.
The Tigers Danjel Purifoy would score their first basket of the game with 17:40 left in the 1st half. The first triple of the game came shortly after as Kyle Guy drained one for UVA to give them an 8-4 lead over the Tigers with 16:13 left in the half. That was answered at the other end with a triple from Bryce Brown. This kicked off a 9-2 run Auburn as they took a 13-10 lead with 12:38 left in the half.
UVA went on an 8-0 run on the Tigers, highlighted by four straight layups, to make it 18-13 with 8:37 left to play. Auburn responded with an emphatic alley-oop dunk from Anfernee McLemore off an assist from Brown. After cutting the deficit to one, UVA pushed their lead back to five.
Auburn’s Samir Doughty drained one from deep to spark a 7-0 run, putting Auburn back o top 24-22 with 4:16 left to play. Both teams continued their stellar first-half performance, with minimal fouling. There was no timeout in the final 7:03 of the first half as they played through uninterrupted until halftime.
At the half, Auburn had the 31-28 lead on Virginia. Leading the Tigers was McLemore and Doughty with 7 points each. For the Cavaliers, it was Ty Jerome with 13 points. Auburn outrebounded UVA 20-14 in the first half.
Virginia got right to work as the second half got underway with a dunk from De’Andre Hunter coming off the assist from Guy. Then Hunter got to the line and missed both free throws, as Auburn maintained their lead. However, quickly after that, Hunter redeemed himself with a basket on an 8-ft jumper to give UVA the 32-31 lead.
Auburn continued to struggle offensively, and the Cavs took advantage of that, opening an 8-0 run to start the 2nd half. The first basket of the 2nd half for the Tigers wouldn’t come until 5:45 into the half, as Jared Harper drained a triple. Then a layup from Doughty tied it all up at 36.
After trading a few basket’s, Virginia took over the game. After slowly pulling away, a triple from Jerome with 5:22 left to play would make it a 10 point Virginia lead with 5:23 left to play. Then it got wild as the Tigers went on a run of their own!
It came to the tune of three triples from Brown as part of a 14-0 run to take a 61-57 lead with only 17 seconds left to play. However, a triple from Guy with 9 seconds left to play would make things extra interesting.
The foul game immediately came into play, sending Harper to the line for Auburn. Harper would make the first, but miss the 2nd, putting Auburn up 62-60, leaving the door open for Virginia.
At the other end, Auburn fouled twice, but then on the inbound with two seconds left, they elected not to foul, and Guy went to the corner and put up a shot from deep. On the way down, he was fouled by Doughty with .6 seconds left to play.
This sent Guy to the line, where he drained all three to make it 63-62 UVA. Auburn wasn’t able to get a good shot up on the inbound, and the final buzzer sounded to send Virginia on to the National Title game.
Jerome was the leading scorer for the Cavaliers with 21 points, also leading the team in assists with six. For the Tigers it was Doughty with 13 points.
Virginia now awaits the winner of Michigan State and Texas Tech, whom they will play on Monday night for the National Title.
