Rush, Kansas ward off rally by Tar Heels

Kansas 84, North Carolina 66

SAN ANTONIO — What Roy Williams needed was a comeback for the ages. What he got was a disappointing dose of payback — a chance to see what it feels like when Kansas breaks his heart.

The Jayhawks left their old coach in the dust Saturday night, getting 25 points and seven rebounds from Brandon Rush to stave off a ferocious comeback by North Carolina for an 84-66 win in the national semifinals.

Trailing 40-12 late in the first half, Tyler Hansbrough, Wayne Ellington and the Tar Heels made a valiant rally, getting to within five points with nine minutes left, but ran out of steam in their effort to pull off the biggest Final Four comeback ever.

"I've never been so embarrassed in my life," said Tar Heel guard Marcus Ginyard.

Now, the Jayhawks will play Memphis, an earlier 78-63 winner over UCLA, in Monday's title game.

Kansas moved within a win of its first national championship since 1988, the year before Williams began his storied 15-year tenure in Lawrence — one that ended when he jilted Kansas for his alma mater.

Hansbrough had 17 points and nine rebounds for North Carolina (36-3) — a typically gutsy effort — but his next move will be to decide whether to come back for his senior season.

Kansas has more pressing things to deal with.

"We know we've got another step to take Monday night," Sherron Collins said. "It's going to be a great matchup. They play fast, we play fast."

Collins had two assists, a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws during the decisive stretch that saw the Jayhawks (36-3) pad that five-point lead back to 15 and send the Tar Heels into true desperation mode.

Williams stood stoically as the clock ticked down, arms folded, nothing much left he could do. Tears usually come pretty quickly after the final buzzer of the season for him, and this season ended one game short of where many thought it might.

"We've had a good year, but I don't think anybody's goal here was to be one of the top four teams in the country," Hansbrough said. "It's to be the top team. I'm frustrated with that."

Williams got outcoached in this one, especially at the beginning, finding no solution for Kansas' somewhat surprising strategy of dumping the ball inside to Darrell Arthur, Darnell Jackson and Cole Aldrich.

Despite the impressive comeback, the final stats painted a picture of Kansas domination. The Jayhawks shot 53 percent from the floor and held the nation's second-leading offense to 35 percent. They had nine more rebounds, 10 more assists, six more blocks.

All that may have helped prove Williams' theory, as he tried to deflect all the talk of himself this week: That the game would be decided by the players.

The Jayhawks were simply better.

"We played great early," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "I mean, that's as good as we could play."

It was Self who replaced Williams after the coach famously bolted for North Carolina, and this was the first chance to see them go against each other with their new teams — and on the game's biggest stage.

Self coached Kansas to the lead. Williams coaxed his team back in it.

But for all North Carolina's effort, this game was lost early.

The basket looked as big as the Alamo for the Jayhawks, who made 12 of their first 16 shots and went on an 18-0 run for a 33-10 lead with 9:31 left.

Meanwhile, the Tar Heels went a stunning 9:03 without a basket. No team has overcome a deficit bigger than 22 at the Final Four, and it was around the time the lead was 40-12 that none other than Billy Packer, the CBS analyst, said the game was over.

Not so fast.

Carolina turned this into controlled chaos over the first 10 minutes of the second half, altering Kansas shots and making pretty much everything they threw up — including a 3-pointer by Ellington (18 points) with 9:20 left that made it 58-53 and had the Tar Heel fans in a frenzy.

Throughout the rally, Self called time-out after time-out — KU fans often criticized Williams for not doing the same under similar circumstances — and eventually, UNC cooled and Kansas ran away.

Picking a Jayhawks star was as easy as closing your eyes and pointing to a name on the stat sheet.

Aldrich stood out, swatting three shots in the first half and altering more after coming off the bench en route to his eight-point, seven-rebound night. His highlight came after KU missed just its fifth shot of the game, more than 10 minutes into the first half, and he outgrappled Hansbrough for a rebound that resulted in two free throws. That made it 33-10.

KANSAS (36-3): Arthur 3-9 0-0 6, Jackson 5-6 2-2 12, Robinson 2-5 2-2 7, Chalmers 5-10 0-2 11, Rush 11-17 1-2 25, Teahan 0-0 0-0 0, Collins 4-9 2-2 11, Case 0-0 0-0 0, Reed 0-0 0-0 0, Kaun 2-4 0-0 4, Aldrich 2-4 4-4 8, Kleinmann 0-0 0-0 0. Totals-34-64 11-14 84.

NORTH CAROLINA (36-3): Thompson 2-4 3-4 7, Hansbrough 6-13 5-6 17, Ginyard 0-3 0-0 0, Lawson 2-8 4-4 9, Ellington 8-21 1-1 18, Campbell 0-0 0-0 0, Thomas 0-2 0-0 0, Graves 0-2 0-0 0, Green 6-13 0-0 15, Tanner 0-0 0-0 0, Wood 0-0 0-0 0, Wooten 0-0 0-0 0, Stepheson 0-1 0-0 0, Copeland 0-0 0-0 0. Totals-24-67 13-15 66.

Halftime-Kansas 44-27. 3-Point Goals-Kansas 5-15 (Rush 2-7, Collins 1-1, Chalmers 1-3, Robinson 1-4), North Carolina 5-24 (Green 3-9, Lawson 1-2, Ellington 1-9, Hansbrough 0-1, Graves 0-1, Ginyard 0-2). Fouled Out-None. Rebounds-Kansas 42 (Arthur 9), North Carolina 33 (Hansbrough 9). Assists-Kansas 17 (Collins, Robinson 4), North Carolina 7 (Ginyard, Lawson, Thomas 2). Total fouls-Kansas 21, North Carolina 14. Att-43,718.

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