Kansas Makes Record Comeback to beat North Carolina for NCAA Championship

Sometimes a basketball game is a tale of two halves. Take this year’s NCAA Men’s Championship game between Kansas and North Carolina, which was a rematch of the 1957 NCAA Championship (undefeated UNC won a triple overtime thriller over the Jayhawks). The Tar Heels got off to a great start and led by as many as 16 points before going into the locker room with a 40-25 halftime lead.

But Kansas showed why it was a #1 seed, storming back to tie the score at 50-50 with 10:53 left in the second half; the Jayhawks led by six just 45 seconds later. But North Carolina wasn’t done, and took a 69-68 lead with 1:41 to go. The Jayhawks’ David McCormack made a pair of jumpers down the stretch, the last one with 22 seconds left, to give Kansas a 72-69 lead. UNC attempted three three point shots in the last 15 seconds, but none of them were good and the Jayhawks had their fourth NCAA Championship (1952, 1988, and 2008 were the others). The 16 point comeback by Kansas was the largest in the history of the NCAA Championship game.