Michigan defeated UConn 69-63 in the NCAA men’s basketball national championship game on Monday night, ending a 26-year national championship drought for the Big Ten.
The Wolverines captured the second NCAA title in school history and the first since 1989.
Elliot Cadeau led the Wolverines with 19 points, including the team’s first 3, which came 7:04 into the second half. The second, from freshman Trey McKenney, came with 1:50 left and felt like a dagger, giving the Wolverines a nine-point lead.
To no one’s surprise, UConn fought to the finish — Solo Ball banked in a 3 to cut it to four with 37 seconds left — and after two missed free throws, UConn’s Alex Karaban (17 points) barely grazed the rim on a 3 that would’ve cut the deficit to one with 17 seconds left.
Not until McKenney sank two free throws to bring Michigan’s shooting from the line to 25 for 28 for the night could the Wolverines (37-3) kick off the celebration.
The game had a 1950s feel to it.
Michigan had to fight for everything. The Wolverines missed their first 11 shots from 3, finished 2 for 15 from there and won despite the struggles of its best player, Yaxel Lendeborg. Ailing with a hurt knee and foot that kept him from elevating, the graduate transfer from UAB finished with 13 points on 4-for-13 shooting.
Michigan’s roster, freshly constructed out of last year’s transfer portal, had become the first team to score 90-plus points in five straight tournament games in the same season. With the help of 7-foot-3 center Aday Mara, the defense amassed eight or more blocks in the first four games of the tournament — the first time that’s happened since blocks became an official stat in the 1980s.
The Wolverines had only three swats against Arizona, but that was a 91-73 win in a game that was supposed to be the best of the tournament but turned into something else.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
