After watching North Carolina tie their national championship matchup with a miracle three-pointer with 4.7 seconds left, the Villanova Wildcats could have been forgiven for thinking ahead to overtime.

But 4.7 seconds was just enough time for Villanova senior guard Ryan Arcidiacono and junior forward Kris Jenkins to break the tie and ensure that for the first time since 1985, the Wildcats got their one shining moment.

The buzzer-beater, which left Jenkins’ hands with about 0.6 seconds left on the game clock, gave the Wildcats a 77-74 win and sparked a wild celebration in Houston’s NRG Stadium. They were joined in spirit by thousands of Villanova students watching from The Pavilion on campus, who soon spilled out onto the streets of Philadelphia to celebrate the school’s first national championship since 1985.

It was the first appearance by a Catholic university in the NCAA championship game since 1989, and the Wildcats, who were coming off a 95-51 drubbing of Oklahoma in their Final Four semifinal, were determined to make the most of their opportunity.

The Tar Heels (33-7) led to start the second half, 49-42, but relinquished the lead to Villanova (35-5) to trail by as many as 10 points. Villanova’s small lead in the closing minute vanished when UNC’s Marcus Paige tied the game at 74 with a wild three-pointer with fewer than five seconds remaining in regulation.

With about 3 seconds to play, Arcidiacono found his open teammate who two-stepped to right behind the three-point line. Jenkins sunk his shot with a fraction of a second remaining to earn the Wildcats their first NCAA men’s basketball title in 31 years.

Villanova University is a Roman Catholic institution of higher learning founded by the Order of St. Augustine in 1842. It is home to about 10,000 undergraduate, graduate and law students on its suburban campus 12 miles west of Philadelphia.