It was a thriller of a game to watch from start to finish as the matchup of the 3rd seed Texas Tech Raiders went up against the 1st seed Virginia Cavaliers. The game would not be decided in regulation and would need overtime to decide a 2019 champion. With both teams fighting to win their first ever championship only one would come out on top.

From even before the tip of the ball you knew it was going to be a very defensive game. The two teams came in ranked #1 and #3 in total defense and both teams struggled to put up points right from the start.

The first ten minutes of the first half would start off slow, by the time they made it to the 10:00 mark, the score was only 7-15. The next ten minutes of the first half saw the scoring output double and triple for each team as they scrambled to half time with a score of 29-32, Virginia leading. 

Going into the 2nd half teams made their adjustments and continued to play very good defense all the way through.  To start the 2nd half Virginia continued to pull away and Texas Tech didn’t score until almost 3 minutes had elapsed in the half.

It looked at times during beginning of the second half that Virginia was going to pull away and win this game, however Texas Tech kept fighting back. Virginia held the lead for almost the entire 2nd half. It wasn’t until late in the second half, with 3:28 on the clock, that the game became tied at 59-59.

Both teams went back and forth for the next 3 minutes until the 35 second mark when TT star Culver made a layup to help the Raiders take the lead 66-65. This caused Virginia to go into foul mode forcing Red Raider Norense Odiase to hit free throws with only 22 seconds remaining. He made both giving the Red Raiders a three point lead and Virginia the ball. 

Virginia pushed the ball up the court and drove to the lane to kick it out to the corner for a three by De’Andre Hunter which touched nothing but the bottom of the net sending the game to its eventual overtime. 

During the start of overtime both teams would keep it close before Texas Tech would take the lead 73-70. However, that was the end of the Texas Tech Red Raiders output as Virginia would take over and end the game on a 15-4 run, Making themselves the 2019 Ncaa Men’s National Champions. 

Virginia would be led by De’Andre Hunter who scored 27 points, 1 assist , and 9 rebounds and Kyle Guy who scored 24 points, 0 assist, and 3 rebounds. As the team shot 27/59 from the field with more 3 pointers and free throws than Texas Tech.

As for Texas Tech they were led by Jarrett Culver with 15 points, 5 assists, and 9 rebounds. With also Brandone Francis scoring 17 points, 1 assist, and 3 rebounds. Texas Tech was 27/63 from the field.