Source: Radio New Zealand
New Zealand’s Oscar Goodman playing for the Michigan Wolverines PATRICK SMITH
New Zealand teenager Oscar Goodman’s Michigan Wolverines have won the NCAA basketball title after a 37-year drought.
The Wolverines defeated the Connecticut Huskies 69-63 to claim the coveted college basketball championship for the second time.
The 19-year-old freshman played limited minutes for the Wolverines this season as the team topped the Big 10 standings and made their way into the NCAA final with a statement win over the Big 12 champion Arizona Wildcats in the Final Four.
Michigan became the first team to score 90 or more points in five straight tournament games in the lead in to the final.
In Tuesday’s (NZT) championship final in Indianapolis, Goodman was on the bench and did not get on the court.
At half-time little separated the teams with the Wolverines ahead 33-29.
Both teams went on scoring runs but in the end it was Michigan’s defence that helped them lift the title in what was a low-scoring game for them.
Waikato’s Charlisse Leger-Walker is a NCAA champion. Supplied
Jack Salt with the Virginia Cavaliers in 2019 was the first New Zealander to win a NCCA basketball championship.
On Monday, Charlisse Leger-Walker with her UCLA team became the first New Zealand woman to achieve the feat in her final year of college.
Leger-Walker will now put her name forward for the WNBA draft next week.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
