University of Connecticut takes Division 1 title

The University of Connecticut (31-8, 12-6) wowed the world with a 60-54 victory over the University of Kentucky (28-11, 12-6), claiming the NCAA Division 1 basketball title for the fourth time.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The East's seventh-seeded Huskies claimed the championship after a series of upset wins to get to the final round, knocking out the tournament's first-seeded team, the University of Florida (36-3, 18-0) 63-53 during the "Final Four" round on April 5.

UConn started off the tournament with a 39-31 victory over Saint Joseph's University in the second round, and from there faced a triumphant uphill battle. The third round saw UConn face former Big East rival and the second-seeded Villanova University 77-65, while in the fourth they beat third-seeded Iowa State University 81-76. The Huskies followed that up with a 60-54 win over fourth-seeded Michigan State University in the fifth round.

Still it was UConn's victory over Florida that was the most shocking, as Florida easily brushed aside all competitors on it's way to the tournament's semi-finals. The last game Florida lost was against UConn way back on Dec. 2, and had a thirty game winning streak prior to the April 5 loss.

Florida started the game with an early lead 16-4 lead, keeping UConn's star guard Shabazz Napier bottled up and unable to play at his fullest. Eventually the Huskies managed to spring back, knocking out 11 unanswered points to remove the deficit. With the help of a phenomenal three point percentage UConn walked out of the first half with a 25-22 lead.

The second half saw an eight-point lead for UConn that Florida couldn't quite make up even after 16 straight points.

UConn then won the championship against Kentucky, a relatively easy win, with the Huskies taking a 30-15 lead in the first half, though Kentucky managed to make up a great deal of points going 35-31 at Halftime. A cold opening in the second half made it a close run game as Kentucky continued to close the gap, a made layup in the last minutes of the game brought Kentucky within four points of a win, but they couldn't close the deal.

Kentucky made it into the last round after an incredibly narrow 74-73 victory over the University of Wisconsin (30-8, 12-6) and an incredible run of upsets against one, two, and four seeded teams.

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