Kentucky Wildcats thump Kansas Jayhawks 67-59 to lift the NCAA title; Anthony Davis named MOP - Recap
University of Kentucky defeated the Kansas Jayhawks 67-59 to win their 8th National Championship on April 2nd, 2012.
Anthony Davis, who is currently regarded as the best talent College Basketball has to offer, had a very mediocre night on scoring but he helped the Wildcats in other facets of the game to beat the no.2 seeded Kansas for the NCAA
Championship.
Doron Lamb led the Wildcats with 22 points; Michael Kidd-Gilchrist scored 11 while Marquis Teague came off the bench to score 14 points. Davis had a poor showing on the night going 1 for 10 on the field while only scoring 6 points
in the biggest stage of the tournament.
Despite having a poor night on offense, Davis made up for it in all other aspects of the game. The Kentucky freshman grabbed 16 rebounds, had six blocks and 5 assists to his name and was named the ‘most outstanding player’ of the
game.
Thomas Robinson scored18 points and grabbed 17 rebounds to lead the Jayhawks; Tyshawn Taylor had 19 and Elijah Johnson scored 13 points for the Jayhawks but Kentucky`s fast paced offence was too much to handle on the night.
Despite having their star player Davis struggling in the first half - he did not score in the opening half of the game - Kentucky started the game off extremely well. They bamboozled the Jayhawks with their run and gun style of
play and led by as much by 18 points in the first half. It looked as though the Wildcats were going to run away with the game as they ended the first half with the score line of 41-27.
Kansas had been known as the comeback winners throughout the season and they were not going to give up on the Championship just yet. As the second half started off, the Jayhawks looked to get back into the game.
Davis who was having a tough night on scoring managed to get his first shot with 5:12 remaining in the game which gave Kentucky a 15 point lead. But this was the National Championship game and the Wildcats had to pass their final
test. After Davis making his first shot with around 5 minutes remaining in the game, Kansas went on a 13-3 run to get to within 5 points with just over a minute left in the game.
In the closing stages of the match, it was all down to who wanted it more, who had more desire to win the Championship and Kentucky proved to be the one with the more calibre in that regard. They managed to hold off the Kansas
comeback only allowing them score 2 more points while scoring 5 of their own in the last minute of the game to win the NCAA Championship.
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