De’Andre Hunter scores 27 points, leads Virginia to national championship with 85-77 overtime victory

MINNEAPOLIS — It happened twice in the dramatic national championship game for Virginia, once in the closing stages of regulation, and again in the overtime.

De’Andre Hunter accepted a pass in the right corner behind the three-point line, rose and fired, and the shot sweetly swished through the net. The two baskets at critical times boosted the Cavaliers to the top of the basketball world for the first time Monday night with an 85-77 victory over Texas Tech before a crowd of 72,062 at U.S. Bank Stadium.

For the second time on Final Four weekend, Hunter, a redshirt sophomore from Friends’ Central School, struggled with his shot in the first half but came on in the second half — and this time, plus overtime — to help Virginia (35-3) complete an incredible season.

Just 388 days earlier, the Cavaliers found themselves on the wrong end of the biggest upset in NCAA Tournament history, an overall No. 1 seed losing to 16 seed UMBC that could have been a confidence crusher for the program. Instead, they regrouped, finished as cochampions of the ACC and survived three nail-biting games for the right to cut down the nets.

“It was a goal that we set out to do at the beginning of the year,” Hunter said while standing on the confetti-strewn elevated court. “People were doubting us. People were discrediting our team and we proved a lot of people wrong in this tournament.

“It’s unbelievable. I’m at a loss for words, really.”

Hunter, who finished with 27 points and nine rebounds, sank the tying three-point basket with 12.9 seconds left to tie the game at 68 and force overtime. After Texas Tech (31-7) took a three-point lead early in the extra period, Hunter followed Kyle Guy’s two free throws with the three-ball that gave UVA the lead for good with 2:09 remaining.

After Hunter scored five points on 1-of-8 shooting in the first half, his second-half and overtime numbers were: 7-of-8 overall from the field, 4-of-4 from three-point range, 22 points. He also played tight defense against Jarrett Culver, Tech’s top scorer and like Hunter, a projected lottery pick in the NBA Draft. He limited Culver to 5-of-22 shooting and 15 points.

“Last game of the year, I had to go out with a bang,” he said. “I was being aggressive in the first half, my shots just weren’t falling and I just wanted to continue to do that in the second half.

“It’s great. I always dreamed of playing on this stage and having a good game on this stage. It’s an amazing feeling.”

Hunter made the all-tournament team along with teammates Kyle Guy and Ty Jerome. Guy scored 24 points and was named the most outstanding player of the Final Four, and Jerome added 16 with eight assists.

“We have a saying, ‘The most faithful win,’ and these guys stayed so faithful,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “Obviously we had some amazing plays. This is about the young men. They made the plays, they did the stuff. Coaches get too much credit when it goes well and too much blame when it goes bad. These young men deserve this championship.”

The Cavaliers matched their largest margin at 53-43 with just over 10 minutes to play, and led 59-51 on Hunter’s follow-up basket with 5:46 remaining. But the Red Raiders ran off the next eight points and a conventional three-point play by Norense Odiase tied the game at 59 with 3:28 left.

Virginia regained the advantage at 65-61 but Tech scored seven unanswered points, taking the lead on Culver’s spinning left-handed layup and going up 68-65 when Odiase sank both ends of a 1-and-1 with 22.5 seconds left.

But the Cavaliers recovered from a similar predicament twice earlier in the tournament, sinking the tying basket at the regulation buzzer in their Elite Eight win over Purdue, and defeating Auburn in the national semifinals on Guy’s three free throws with 0.6 seconds left.

This time, Hunter hit the game-tying basket, and hit another trey from the same spot in OT to send the Cavaliers on their way. Virginia went 12 of 12 on free throws in the extra period.

“We’re steady,” Hunter said. “We never waver in our confidence. We always do what we know how to do and we never get too worried when a team gets on a run.

“It’s crazy. Watching ‘One Shining Moment,’ it really got to me. I used to watch it all the time. We weren’t in it last year but we were this time. So just to play in the final game and win the championship is just an amazing feeling.”