By William Hathaway, Jr.
There is a new national champion in college basketball. The Baylor Bears mauled the top ranked and undefeated Gonzaga Bulldogs 86-70. Based on how Baylor never trailed once in the game, it was clear that Gonzaga was worn out from its 93-90 overtime win over UCLA.
Leading Baylor was Jared Butler with 22 points and Macio Teague chipping in 19 points. The Bears finished the season with a 28-2 record, while Gonzaga fell to 32-1, falling one game short of becoming the first team to run an undefeated season since 1976’s Indiana Hoosiers.
On the women’s side, the Stanford women’s basketball team defeated Arizona in the National Championship game 54-53, after the Wildcats missed a game winning shot at the buzzer. It marked the second game in the Final Four where the Cardinal survived a late miss from the other team. Stanford barely survived South Carolina 66-65. This is Stanford’s first championship in 29 years.
In other news, the Nets beat the Knicks 114-112 and reached the top of the Eastern Conference. In Major League Baseball, while the Yankees opened their season with a tough loss 3-2 loss against the Blue Jays, the Mets’ season opener with the Nationals was postpone due to COVID-19 cases on Washington. Finally, in NFL news, the Jets have traded QB Sam Darnold to the Panthers for a 6th round pick this year, and 2nd and 4th round picks in 2022.
