UNC, Villanova Advance To NCAA Championship

As March Madness ends, two teams have emerged as victors heading into the 2016 NCAA championship: Villanova University and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Saturday, both teams played in top form at NRG Stadium in Houston, a 70,000-plus seat venue.

Villanova handily destroyed a No. 2 seeded Oklahoma, 95-51, in the first NCAA Final Four semifinal, winning by the biggest margin ever in a Final Four game.

Villanova shot an incredible 71.4 percent from the field, reminiscent of Villanova’s 78.6 percent effort in the national championship game against No. 1 Georgetown in 1985.

Junior guard Josh Hart scored 23 points, as the No. 2 seed Wildcats defeated No. 2 seed Oklahoma Sooners to advance to the NCAA men’s basketball national championship game.

Villanova head coach Jay Wright said to CNN, “I’m happy we had one of those games where we just make every shot. We had end-of-shot-clock shots we just threw up and went in.”

The second game turned into another blowout, as ACC Conference teams North Carolina defeated Syracuse, their third time meeting this season (UNC won all three matchups). The Orange cut UNC’s lead to seven points with about 10 minutes in the second half, but that’s as close at they got to the Tar Heels.

“The last four weeks we’ve been much, much better defensively,” UNC head coach Roy Williams said to CNN. “We had a brain lapse there for about three minutes in the second half, but other than that I thought we were really good defensively against a team that’s hard to guard.”

Senior Brice Johnson and sophomore guard/forward Justin Jackson each had 16 points. Junior forward Kennedy Meeks had 15 points, while senior guard Marcus Paige had 13 points. Sophomore guard Joel Berry II had eight points and 10 assists.

On Monday, Villanova will face North Carolina for the NCAA Championship.