1968 UCLA vs Houston game of the century

On 20th January 1968, National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) teams the UCLA Bruins and the Houston Cougars played a regular season NCAA game at the Astrodome. Billed as the "Game of the Century", the Cougars defeated the Bruins 71-69, handing UCLA its first defeat after 47 consecutive victories. Occurring in front of a then-basketball record audience of 52,693, the encounter became the first NCAA regular season to receive live primetime national television coverage, courtesy of the TVS Television Network. The broadcast ultimately convinced other national television networks on the viability of continually airing regular-season college basketball games, inspiring the March Madness coverage.
Heading into the game, the UCLA Bruins were enjoying a reign of dominance under head coach John Wooden.For two and a half years, the Bruins achieved a 47 game winning streak, and had also won the 1964, 1965, and 1967 NCAA Tournaments.Such was the Bruin's dominance that UCLA center Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) noted many followers of college basketball had begun to tire of the team's dominance, and were seeking a fresh challenger. But whereas UCLA had been achieving a perfect start to the 1967-1968 regular season, so too had the Houston Cougars, who had won their first 16 games. Both teams were now 1 and 2 in the national polls. In the previous NCAA Tournament, the Bruins beat the Cougars 73-58 in the National Semifinals on 24th March 1967
As for the game itself, UCLA faced problems when Alcindor suffered a scratched left eye during a game held a week prior, causing him to suffer recurring corneal erosion syndrome.While Alcindor competed, not only did he require a large bandage on his affected cornea, but the injury had prevented him from competing in two games held before the clash, making him lose focus and conditioning. While all players were certainly nervous heading into the event, Hayes helped calmed nerves among the Cougars, completely outpacing Alcindor throughout much of the game.He, therefore, contributed towards the Cougars achieving a narrow 46-43 lead when the first-half ended. In contrast, whereas Alcindor would go on to have a successful NCAA and later NBA career, this clash was declared one of his worst performances, converting only four of his eighteen scoring opportunities with some blocked by Hayes.Thus, the Bruins mainly relied on Lucius Allen, whose long-range shooting kept UCLA within touching distance of the Cougars' score.
The predominantly Houston audience (10,000 were supporting UCLA) was now firmly behind the Cougars. Houston guard Don Chaney recalled that the support was so extremely noisy that it marked the only instance where he failed to hear the basketball bounce.[4] Alcindor meanwhile faced fatigue, though was kept on throughout the game as the others players and coach believed removing him from play would further impact proceedings. Nevertheless, while UCLA was not up to its full strength, the team kept up with Houston, equalising at the 54, 65, and 69-point marks.Allen again was credited for the comeback, tying the game via two free throws leaving just 44 seconds remaining. However, sixteen seconds later, Hayes was fouled, allowing him to score two free throws of his. In total, Hayes converted 17 of his 25 shots and scored 39 points. Behind again, UCLA's final equalising opportunity was squandered when an Allen pass towards Jim Nielsen ending up going over the line after Michael Warren deflected it.With 12 seconds remaining, Hayes ran towards the UCLA's hoop, before passing to George Reynolds.
Reynolds held onto the ball until time expired, giving the Cougars an upset 71-69 victory.