Monica had final two and 50 total points to take home $100 prize as champion

BY DAVID FOLSE II

Sports Editor

LAPLACE-Matt Monica of LaPlace took home the championship of the L’Observateur Pick the Winners Contest of the 2005 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship.

Out of 63 total games, Monica amazingly picked 50 correct games, including the final championship pair of North Carolina and Illinois.

“I’m very excited,” Monica said. “I won this pool and finished in the top 100 on espn.com’s bracket pick’em. I had a very good tournament.”

The only contestant to put Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the Sweet 16, Monica is an avid follower of college basketball.

“That was luck with that pick,” Monica said. “I follow college basketball pretty closely, but that was just one of those games that it is just more luck than skill.

“I follow over the internet and mostly just made gut picks. A lot of the small school mostly get overlooked and they are a lot of the times really good.”

Congratulations to all participants and we look forward to another exciting tournament championship next season.