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This Day In Sports…April 4, 2016:

The first buzzer-beating three-pointer ever in the NCAA championship game, as Villanova’s Kris Jenkins connects when time expires to give the Wildcats a heart-stopping 77-74 win over North Carolina for the national title. That came after the Tar Heels’ Marcus Paige had hit an incredible double-clutch, off-balance three to tie the game with 4.7 seconds left. Paige had hit a three-ball with about a minute and a half left to cut what had been a 10-point Villanova lead to three. Paige was poised to be a hero, but then history happened.

Actually, the final 13.5 seconds of the game is the stuff of legend. That’s when Villanova’s Josh Hart hit a pair of free throws to put the Wildcats up 74-71. Then North Carolina guard Joel Barry took the ball into the forecourt and dished to Paige. Three Wildcats converged on him. A story at FanBuzz described what came next this way: “Paige rises for the three-pointer, brings the ball down to readjust, contorts his body, and fires. Good.” Said Tar Heels coach Roy Williams after the game, “He turned a broken play into a great play.” 

The contest was as riveting as they come after both teams had won in routs in the semifinals two days earlier. North Carolina had eliminated that year’s Cinderella, Syracuse, 83-66. And Villanova’s 95-51 conquest of Oklahoma produced the largest margin of victory ever in a Final Four game. The combined 61-point margin of victory broke a Final Four record dating back to 1949. Villanova’s subsequent win over UNC produced its second national championship and its first since 1985, when coach Rollie Massimino famously exclaimed “April Fools!” after the Wildcats’ upset of Georgetown.

There’s been plenty of legendary buzzer-beaters in the NCAA Tournament over the years (the coast-to-coast drive by UCLA’s Tyus Edney against Missouri in 1995 in the BSU Pavilion comes to mind). But Jenkins’ three-pointer marked the first one in a championship game since Indiana’s Keith Smart hit a short jumper against Syracuse in 1987. And the one before that is relevant right now. In 1983, North Carolina State’s Lorenzo Charles grabbed an errant three-point attempt at the rim and threw down a dunk at the horn. Saturday marks the Wolfpack’s first return to the Final Four since that unlikely win over Houston.

(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)

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