KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The University of Kansas men's basketball team is returning to Lawrence, Kansas, as champions.
KU rallied in the second half of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship to beat the University of North Carolina Tar Heels on Monday night.
The first few minutes of the first half of the NCAA Championship looked promising for the Jayhawks.
KU started the game on a 7-0 run and even led 9-3 at one point.
However, UNC stormed back led by forward Armando Bacot and guard R.J. Davis.
It didn't help that the Jayhawks went nearly five minutes without scoring a bucket late in the first half.
This allowed the Tar Heels to tear away on a 16-0 run, largely due to second chance shots. The Tar Heels scored a total of 18 points off of second chance points in the first half.
The Jayhawks went into halftime down 40-25.
Coming out the second half, the Jayhawks went on a 12-1 run to cut the lead to one point with about 13 minutes left in the second half.
From there, it was game on, and the Jayhawks and Tar Heels traded buckets.
KU guard Christian Braun, forward Jalen Wilson and guard Remy Martin led the charge for the Jayhawks in the second half.
Wilson scored 11 points in the second half and finished with 15 total points.
Braun, a Kansas City-area native and Blue Valley Northwest graduate, scored 10 points of his own in the second half.
Braun finished with 12 overall points.
With 10:53 left in the second half, the Jayhawks tied the game at 50.
Moments later, Martin made a three pointer to give KU its first lead since the early in the first half.
Both teams battled late in the half but the Jayhawks were able to close out the game.
The Tar Heels had one last chance with less than 5 seconds left in the game.
Caleb Love, who played his high school basketball in Missouri, took a 3-point shot that fell short.
"Coach Davis drew up a play for Brady or me," Love said at the post game news conference. "I got the ball and the shot came up short."
The win Monday marked the Jayhawks first NCAA Championship since 2008 and its second under Coach Bill Self.
Self's teams at KU have won more than 80 percent of their games,
