Villanova advances to the national title game

Thanks to an early run and a barrage of three-pointers, Villanova took care of Kansas to play in Monday’s national championship game.

It was viewed as one of the best games of the NCAA Tournament and possibly even the real national championship instead of the semifinals. But the first few minutes proved otherwise, with Villanova taken an early 22-4 lead.

That’s right, 22-4 thanks to the Wildcats going ballistic from three-point range. Throughout the half, Jay Wright’s team had more makes from deep than the Jayhawks had total from the field. The team went an unbelievable 13/26 from deep.

They set a number of records as well, with the most team three-pointers in a season, an NCAA Tournament run, and a Final Four game. To add insult to injury, it also was the largest ever halftime lead an opponent ever had on Kansas in the Big Dance at 15 points.

The second half was more of the same, with Kansas unable to slow down Villanova one bit. Bill Self’s Jayhawks made a couple of runs to try and make this one respectable, but the early hole they dug themselves in was simply too much. The highest scoring team in the country surpassed their season average in the 95-79 win,

The star of the game surprisingly wasn’t either All-Americans Devonte’ Graham and Jalen Brunson, but rather Fordham transfer Eric Paschall. He was nearly perfect on the night, going 10/11 (4/5 from deep) on the night for 24 points. Omari Spellman completely outplayed Udoka Azubuike on the night with a double-double.

The margin of the game took away from the point guard battle. Graham finished his career with a team-high 23 while Brunson had 18 points and six assists.

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Villanova moves on to the national championship title game against Michigan, who defeated Loyola-Chicago 69-57 in the other semifinal game. The Wolverines are one of the best three-point defending teams in the country, so it’ll be interesting to see how the Wildcats go about attacking them.