Luke Maye hits late jumper to lift North Carolina to Final Four
Luke Maye hits late jumper to lift North Carolina to Final Four
MEMPHIS — The North Carolina Tar Heels are a win away from getting back to a national championship game they narrowly lost a year ago.
Luke Maye hit a jumper with 0.3 of a second left and top-seeded North Carolina held off Kentucky 75-73 to earn the Tar Heels’ second straight trip to the Final Four and 20th all-time in Sunday’s showdown of college basketball’s elite in the South Regional.
The Tar Heels (31-7) will face Midwest champ Oregon on Saturday in Glendale, Ariz., in the national semifinal.
North Carolina took control with 12 straight points over the final five minutes, a run similar to what it used a week ago to beat Arkansas.
Monk’s second shot with 7.2 seconds left and defenders in his face tied it 73-73.
“I probably should have called timeout,” Kentucky head coach John Calipari said.
The sophomore from Huntersville, N.C., knocked it down with his feet on the three-point arc.
The Wildcats had one last chance, but Derek Willis’ inbounds pass went out of bounds on the far end.
Never before had the NCAA Tournament pitted powerhouse programs that have so dominated March.
Kentucky led for less than four minutes in a game in which North Carolina had a big edge on the boards (44-34) and inside, where the Tar Heels outscored the Wildcats 34-26.
Semifinal winners, 6:15 p.m.