A Berry big night for PG

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Last year’s pain was worse. It was emotional, not physical.

Joel Berry II will make that trade any day.

Berry managed to forget about the pain in his two sprained ankles for a few hours Monday night, looking more like the player who led North Carolina all year than the hobbled one who struggled throughout the tournament.

The junior point guard, one of the most vocal Tar Heels in discussing the heartbreaking loss in last year’s championship game at the buzzer to Villanova, scored 22 points and added six assists to lead North Carolina to redemption, a 71-65 victory over Gonzaga in the national championship game at University of Phoenix Stadium.

“I think the difference with me is that I have heart and I have will to do whatever it takes to be able to get out there and compete with my guys,” Berry said. “They’re like family to me. And I was able to put my pain aside and just think about them first.”

Berry, the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player, scored 13 points in the second half, the opposite of his performance a year ago in the final, when he scored just five after intermission. He seemed more mobile, his lateral quickness coming back, not as easily beat off the dribble. Most of all, he played solid defense and set the game’s pace, two things he talked about Sunday as more important than scoring.

He hit his first shot, a 3pointer from the left wing, but unlike Saturday night in the national semifinals against Oregon, when he would miss his 12 of his next 13 shots, Berry didn’t go cold.

“When we were done with warm-ups, I was running to the bench and we do our regular handshakes with our coaches. And I ran by Coach [Roy Williams] and he told me, just use your legs,” Berry said. “And every time I took a jump shot I just tried to use my legs and some of them were short. But the ones that we needed went in.”