Viewers witnessed a boring national collegiate basketball championship games Monday as UConn beat Butler, 53-41.
For some, March Madness slowed down — but it was far from over. The women played a tense defensive game as Texas A&M took a 76-70 victory over Notre Dame on Tuesday.
If you’re one of those people who make brackets for the NCAA tournament, your championship game probably had UConn going for a three-peat against a team like Stanford. Well, UND knocked the Huskies off 72-63 while Texas broke Stanford’s heart with a 63-62 victory in its first trip to the Final Four.
Danielle Adams led the Aggies with a game-high 30 points along with nine rebounds. Trya White followed behind with 18 points and Sydney Colson scored 10 points. Texas shot 54.7 percent from the field on 29-for-53 shooting while connecting on 16-of-23 free-throw attempts. For the Fighting Irish, Skylar Diggins scored 23 and Devereaux Peters had 21 points and 11 rebounds for the double-double. Natalie Novosel scored 14. Notre Dame went 24-for-52 from the field and 76.9 percent from foul line on 20-for-26 shooting.
The Aggies jumped off to a quick 12-4 lead with 15:22 left in the first half. They stayed on top by at least 10 points until the 9:34 mark when a layup by Peters put the Irish within nine. Eight minutes later, Becca Bruszewski tied the score at 33 with 1:34 left. On Notre Dame’s next possession, Diggins connected on a layup that gave the team its first lead, 35-33 at the half.
Coming out of the break, the momentum stayed with the Fighting Irish and the Aggies offense suffered. Notre Dame got off to a 42-35 lead with 17:47 left. The Aggies chipped away at the Irish’s lead until they found themselves tied at 48 with 13:57 remaining.
After Adams’ free throws, no team’s advantage was above three points until a trip to the free-throw line for White gave the Aggies a 75-70 advantage with 10 seconds remaining. The Fighting Irish were unable to connect on another shot and another foul allowed Texas A&M to walk away with a win in its first trip to the NCAA championship.
And they say women’s basketball is boring. Well, if you compare Tuesday’s championship game to Monday’s, I’m pretty sure the women are the ones who will have you on the edge of your couch until the very end.
Another year of college basketball is over and on both sides the championship bracket did not include a top-seeded team — that’s what I call Madness.
