NCAA Championships-Syracuse vs. Kansas
On Monday April 7th the NCAA Tournament finals were held in New
Orleans, LA at the Super Dome. Coaches Jim Boeheim, of Syracuse and Roy
Williams, of Kansas were looking toward winning their first NCAA Championship
title, although they both knew that only one of them would walk away a
winner. The final score of the game was 81-78 Kansas. It was a very close
game, at many times during the game you saw a tied score. Even though at
one time in the game Kansas was down by 18, but they recovered quickly.
In about the final two minutes Syracuse and Kansas battled it out. Unfortunately,
Kansas walked away empty handed. The top scorers of the night were Nick
Collison and Keith Langford both with 19 points for Kansas and Gerry McNamara
with 18 points for Syracuse. Unluckily, Langford fowled out of the game
with 5 minutes and 36 seconds left in the game. The Orangemen (Syracuse)
made triple history by producing the best offensive opening half in NCAA
championship game history, by setting the championship game record for
the most points (53) in the first half and by simply winning the big dance.
It was a sweet moment for Boeheim, who twice before had lost in the championship
game. It was his 38th NCAA Tournament win but his first national title
after 27 years at Syracuse. Here's what Coach Boeheim had to say to reporters
at the end of the game, ``I'm tremendously happy,'' and ``(I) Give Kansas
an unbelievable amount of credit. It's a tribute to (Coach) Roy Williams
the way they kept coming back."
Updated on April 10, 2003
Author: Zina
