SN 140 Moments: No. 129 - Villanova plays near-perfect game to upset No. 1 Georgetown for NCAA title

It wasn’t on purpose forward Dwayne McClain wound up on his knees while accepting the inbound pass that completed Villanova’s stunning 66-64 victory and ruined Georgetown’s hope of becoming back-to-back NCAA champion.

It was fitting, though.

Villanova is a Catholic university, founded by the Order of St. Augustine, and now is the alma mater of Pope Leo XIV. And what had happened over the previous 39 minutes, 58 seconds was something of a miracle.

Villanova nearly was a 10-point underdog largely because No. 1 Georgetown had been overwhelming for most of the season. The Wildcats were a No. 8 NCAA Tournament seed, more so because they’d underperformed than because they were overmatched. They featured three future NBA players and lost twice in the regular season against Georgetown by just a combined nine points.

The Wildcats’ performance was not, indeed, perfect. The Wildcats turned it over 17 times. Defeating Georgetown by a single basket, however, required the Wildcats to shoot 78 percent for the game and 90 percent in the second half.

This performance also helped push the game to modernize. The slow pace led to increased pressure for adoption of a shot clock, which began at 45 seconds the following season and was cut to 30 by 2015-16.

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