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Once again, the game came down to Aaron Harrison's hands. Once again, Harrison hit the game-winning shot to spring the Kentucky Wildcats. This time, it came against the Wisconsin Badgers in the Final Four, sending the Wildcats to the National Championship Game with a 74-73 win.
Kentucky got the late lead with a layup by Alex Poythress at the 2:17 mark, but Frank Kaminsky tied things back up with just over a minute to go. Wisconsin got a big break when Traevon Jackson was fouled from the three-point line.
Wisconsin had made all 17 of its free throws up to this point. Jackson missed the first, but made his last two to give the Badgers the lead with 16.4 seconds left. Aaron Harrison found the ball in his hands with only five seconds to go and a two-point deficit. This is what happened next.
The Badgers opened up an early nine-point lead and stayed ahead for most of the first half, but Kentucky pulled back to a reasonable deficit with a 6-2 run in the final two minutes.
Genuine highlight plays were few and far between in the first half, but Marcus Lee made up for it with this dunk.
Julius Randle briefly left the game with an ankle injury, but he came back in and finished the first half with nine points, tied with James Young for the team lead. The Badgers went into halftime leading 40-36 despite shooting just 11-for-17 from the floor to Kentucky's 14-for-26, thanks in part to draining all 14 of their free throws in the opening period.
As with most games involving Kentucky this tournament, things got crazy in the second half. The Wildcats turned on the burners with a 15-0 run, taking a commanding lead and pulling off beautiful plays like this one.
But Wisconsin did not go quietly, ripping off a 17-6 run of its own to get the lead back and set up the wild finish.
The Wildcats shot 50 percent from the floor and won the rebounding battle, 32-27. James Young led with 17 points and Dakari Johnson pulled down seven rebounds. Sam Dekker and Ben Brust were Wisconsin's leading scorers with 15 points each. The Badgers made 46 percent of their field goals.
The Wildcats advance to the final round for the 12th time in school history. They take on the Connecticut Huskies Monday, the first title game between a No. 7 and No. 8 seed in NCAA history.