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MINNEAPOLIS – There is win while being dominated. Then there is the victory torn from the mouth of defeat. Then there are several other gradients of good fortune. And it was only then that Virginia did Saturday night at the Final Four.
Auburn was surprised by his 63-62 victory. The match stitched the game a few minutes before the end and propelled the top ranked Cavaliers to their first national championship game. They will face Michigan State or Texas Tech, who met later Saturday night in the final on Monday night. But the way Virginia arrived had something to do.
Gaining a 10-point lead in the final five minutes, allowing Auburn, the fifth seed, to finally score 14 points, the Cavaliers then reduced the Tigers lead to one point when Junior Kyle Guy hit a pointer to 7 seconds remaining.
Clutching immediately, Virginia put Auburn Jared Harper on the sideline, where he made his first free throw and missed the second. After a break and a double dribble violation on Guy that the referees missed, and another foul of Auburn, Virginia opened the look to Guy in the left corner of the ring. Guy missed it. The game seemed to be over. Auburn had won.
But before Guy returns to the ground, a whistle! A fault. And of course, in the televised reruns, there was Samir Doughty, Auburn junior, who defended Guy, his arms outstretched, but his body clashing against Guy's after he released his shot. In other words, it is not the kind of fault that has affected the trajectory of the shot. But it was still a fault.
Guy, an 81.8% free throw shooter, is now offered three free throws to give the lead to his team and, almost certainly, the win, made the first two. Auburn called a waiting period. The teams regrouped and then returned to the court. Guy did the third. There was only 0.6 seconds left, which was not enough for Auburn, but he managed to take off before the ring. Game over. Virginie wins.
"I think it was difficult," said Harper, but "that's not why we lost the match."
"It will be a memorable match," added Auburn coach Bruce Pearl, "and I would like him to be selected for a great game. Do not remember this game because of the way it ended. "
Virginia (34-3), featured in her first Final Four since N.C.A.A. The tournament, which had 64 teams in 1985, will play for the championship only one year after his team became the first and only seed to lose a No. 16 seed in the history of the men's tournament. The Cavaliers carried this loss all season; now, they are an exoneration game to do it in the best possible way.
Ty Jerome, of Virginia, said, "Looking back at this time of last year, we were starting our spring training, and continuing to play at this point of the season with, after tonight, another team from all over the country on the stage you dreamed of. Since you were little, it's an unreal feeling. We will do everything in our power to finish the job. "
It's no coincidence that Virginia has won more than any other team this year, though she's rarely pretty and never glamorous, and even though, in her regional final against Purdue, Virginia's win required an unlikely shot overtime .
Guy's last 3-point shot (the one he made) is the result of a complex game involving several screens. The even later 3-point blow (the one that he missed due to a foul) occurred in an offside game, in which Junior Redshirt, Mamadi Diakite, was the first look at inside for a lob – similar to shot on goal. attempt with which he sent the Purdue match in overtime. When it was not open, the play became, as Diakite then said, an informal piece known as "Kyle Get Open".
In their first final, the Tigers (30-10) were well cleared. At the end of the half, Auburn led by 3. Virginia was 28-0 when she led at the half this season, but only 5-3 when she trailed. Auburn played as he wished, with Guards Harper and Bryce Brown going to the basket early in the clock and attempting to finish at the edge or kick the ball for a deep shot from his teammate.
But Auburn lost his lead over the first five minutes of the second half, but he lost time at 10 seconds when he called the timeout with just over five minutes after Jerome hit a jumper at the Expiry of the shooting time – the platonic ideal of an offensive possession for the deliberate attack of Virginia – the sophomore of 'Andre Hunter scored for the post then Jerome hit his fourth pointer to three of the match.
Hunter finished with 14 points and Jerome led all scorers with 21 points, and added 6 assists and 9 rebounds. Diakite led all players with five blocks.
The return of Auburn was led by Brown, who hit his second, third and fourth 3 points of the match in the last-minute wave. He finished with 12 points.
"We just thought we needed to make stops," said Harper. "We did not start the second half so well on the defense, we let them do what they wanted, and being able to get back into the game and get into that position was great for us."
Production was expected from Auburn, one of the country's top three-point teams, after falling to 3-14 in the first half against Virginia's ballistic defense. The Tigers finished 9 with 31 attempts in 3 points.
Virginia was not supportive, her lead first diminished and then disappeared. He turned the ball over a stopwatch violation. He gave two offensive rebounds. Hunter committed an offensive goalkeeper violation. Diakite missed two free throws.
Fleeing with less than 30 seconds and not yet in the bonus, Virginia had to commit a foul three times before Auburn finally found herself on the free throw line, where Anfernee McLemore hit both free throws.
Then it was Guy's 3 points, Harper's free throw, then the shot in the corner, the foul and the end, unforgettable and devastating.
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