MARCH Madness in the United States concluded Monday night as the Virginia Cavaliers went to overtime to put away the Texas Tech Red Raiders 85-77 and win the college basketball national championship (NCAA).

A season after becoming the first No. 1 seed to lose to a 16, the Cavaliers watched a 10-point lead turn into a 3-point deficit before De’Andre Hunter came to the rescue. The sophomore made the game-tying 3 with 12.1 seconds left in regulation, then made another with just over two minutes left in the extra period to give the Cavs the lead for good.

“Surreal,” Hunter called it. “It’s a goal we started out with at the beginning of the season. We knew we were going to bounce back from last year. We achieved our dreams.”

After going scoreless for the first 18 1/2 minutes, Hunter finished with a career-high 27 points, and if he leaves as a lottery pick — well, what a way to go out.

He helped the Cavs bring home the first NCAA title for a program with a colorful, star-crossed and, now, very winning history.

Nothing came easily — appropriate given where Virginia has been over the last year, since its history making loss to University of Maryland-Baltimore County in the first round of last year’s tournament.

Each of its 35 wins, and each of the team’s scant three losses, were all punctuated by the reminder that only the end result would serve as the ultimate report card on whether the Cavs could truly shed the baggage of last year.

What a ride this was.

The Cavaliers fell behind by 14 early to 16th-seeded Gardner-Webb in this year’s opening round, and a nightmare seemed to be unfolding. But this time, they overcame it.

Then, they beat Purdue in the Elite Eight when the game looked lost, and did the same against Auburn on Saturday — getting bailed out by a foul call and Kyle Guy’s three free throws with 0.6 seconds left.

“I told them, I just want a chance at a title fight one day,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “That’s all I want. ... You’re never alone in the hills and the valleys we faced that in the last year.”

Hunter’s key 3 in OT gave Virginia a 75-73 lead, and after the teams traded possessions, Tech guard Davide Moretti scrambled after a loose ball heading onto Virginia’s end of the court. It appeared it would be Texas Tech ball, but a replay showed Moretti’s pinkie finger had barely scraped the ball. Virginia got possession, and worked the ball into Ty Jerome, who got fouled and made two free throws.

(SD-Agencies)