NCAA Championship 2019: Virginia Win First Title, Referees Accused Of Helping

The Virginia Cavaliers won their first national championship with a 85-77 win over Texas Tech Red Raiders in overtime on Monday night. The victory comes one year after they left the court embarrassed after becoming the first No.1 seed to lose to a No.16 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Red Raiders was trailing for most of the game and the second time they took the lead in the game came with 35 seconds remaining on the clock in the second-half with the score at 66-65, which they then increased to 68-65 following a pair of free throws from Norense Odiase.

But the Cavaliers’ DeAndre Hunter hit a corner three pointer to tie the game at 68-68 with 12 seconds remaining. Jarrett Culver’s double attempt in the final seconds were unsuccessful, sending the game into overtime.

Hunter, who hit a career high 27 points on the night while also nabbing 9 rebounds, gave Virginia the early lead in overtime. But Matt Mooney hit a triple and a jump shot to give Texas a 73-70 advantage.

It was soon negated by Hunter and Kyle Guy via two free throws and a corner three pointer from the former to reinstate their advantage at 75-73 with two minutes to go. The referee’s then made a controversial call against Davide Moretti of Texas which gave Virginia the turnover and from then on they were unstoppable as they went on an 11-0 run to wrap up the game.

The referees came under heavy criticism after the game with many claiming that they favored Virginia during the game, especially during overtime. The free throws awarded to Guy during overtime were questioned with many claiming one of them was not even a foul.

A few fans even claimed Virginia was given the luck of the draw by the officials during their game against Auburn in the Final Four stage.