MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.— De’Andre Hunter missed University of Virginia’s short- lived NCAA tournament appearance last year with a fractured left wrist when the top-seeded Cavaliers lost to 16th-seed UMBC, 74-54, in one of biggest upsets of all time.
Fast forward 388 days from that epic disaster that could have left scars on Virginia’s psyche for years.
The 6-8 redshirt sophomore forward from Friends Central in Philadelphia who solidified his spot at a likely lottery pick if he declares for the NBA draft, made his presence felt in a big way here last night, scoring 22 of his 27 points in the final 25 minutes and grabbed nine rebounds as Virginia found a way to solve the riddle of Texas Tech’s suffocating man-to-man defense, outlasting the tenacious Red Raiders, 85-77, in overtime to win their first NCAA tournament championship ever at the U.S. Bank Stadium.
Hunter, who went scoreless for the first 18 and a half minutes and shot just 1 for 8 in the first half, made seven of eight field goal attempts and drained two clutch three-point jump shots after the break as the efficient Cavaliers, who have been the dominant program in the powerful Atlantic Coast Conference for the past three years, outscored Tech, 17-9, in overtime.
Hunter made a huge three with 12 seconds left to regulation to tie the game at 68-68 and force overtime. Then, he made another clutch three in overtime to give the Cavaliers the lead for good, 75-73, with 2:10 to play and Virginia closed out Tech, making a perfect 12 of 12 free throws in the final frantic five minutes.
“It’s unbelievable, especially after what happened last year. We talked about this all season and it happened. It’s crazy. We were destined to win. We had to.’’
This was one of the great games in NCAA tournament history and was the perfect ending to a highly competitive tournament in which the ACC regular season champions needed a desperation jumper by forward Mamadi Diakite at the buzzer in regulation and a grueling overtime to defeat Purdue in the Elite Eight and three consecutive free throws from guard Kyle Guy with 0.6 seconds left to get past Auburn, 63-62, in the NCAA semi-finals.
Guy, who finished with 24 points with four three pointers, was selected the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. He was joined on the all-tournament team by Hunter and guard Ty Jerome who had 16 points for the Cavaliers, who shot 45.8 percent and made 11 of 24 threes against the Raiders.
“I don’t know if all these guys remember this, but every time they come into my office, I’ve got a poster of Rocky on the steps. I told them, ‘I just want a chance at the title fight one day.’ That’s all we told them and these guys came to fight in the title and we won the championship.
“I’m so thankful because this is a great story. I played a song for them today called ‘Hills and Valleys’ by Tauren Wells and it means that you are never alone in the hills or the valleys. We faced those from last year to this year, but the credit goes to these young men.’’
Bennett’s 91-year old father Dick, who coached Wisconsin to a Final Four in 2000, was in the stands to watch his son’s greatest accomplishment.
Texas Tech, which trailed 53-43 midway through the second half, looked like it was about to win the game in regulation after forward Norense Odiase made two free throws to give the Raiders an 68-65 lead with 22 seconds to play. But Virginia, as they have done all tournament, found a way to keep the door open when Tech guard Jarrett Culver didn’t close out on Hunter when he made his game tying three.
Culver, who had been the Raiders’ best player all season, suffered through a brutal championship game, scoring 15 points on just 5 of 22 shooting and no field goals in the first half while being smothered by Hunter.
“I’m just so proud of our guys fighting back and sending the game into overtime,’’ Tech coach Chris Beard said. “We had a chance to win it and then when we got to overtime we hit our first shot but then we couldn’t make any stops. Let’s talk about Virginia. Coach Bennett is one of the class guys and if you talk about a team of destiny, I think they were really, really good. “This is real life. We’ll bounce back. In terms of Texas Tech basketball, we’re not going anywhere. We’ll be back in this tournament sooner than later, and we intend to be a large part of college basketball as we build this program.”
