DOWN TO THE FINAL FOUR
Carolina tames Kentucky on unlikely hero Maye’s jumper in thrilling regional final
North Carolina’s Luke Maye and Kentucky’s Malik Monk in their NCAA tournament game Sunday. North Carolina won, as did South Carolina over Florida. They will be joined by Oregon and Gonzaga in the Final Four.
NORTH CAROLINA 75 KENTUCKY 73
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Luke Maye’s aspirations for the game’s final sequence matched his pedigree. A bit player for most of his career, the onetime walk-on forward figured maybe he could put himself in position to grab a rebound.
He ended up nudging North Carolina back into the Final Four.
As Tar Heels teammate Theo Pinson drove into the lane, cutting off two Kentucky defenders with the score tied in the closing seconds Sunday evening at FedExForum, Maye backpedaled toward the perimeter. Pinson flipped the ball to Maye, who rose for a jumper that fell through the net and into North Carolina lore.
“I saw an opening and I shot it,” Maye would say later. “I don’t know even if it was a three or a two. I’m still not sure.”
Maye’s long two-pointer with three-tenths of a second left lifted the top-seeded Tar Heels to a 7573 victory over the second-seeded Wildcats in the NCAA tournament South Regional final, and into a national semifinal against Oregon on Saturday at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.
It also served as a rebuttal of sorts to the soul-crushing ending his team had endured against Villanova last season in the national championship game.
North Carolina’s Marcus Paige had made a dramatic three-pointer to tie the score in the final seconds, only to be upstaged by Villanova’s Kris Jenkins, who made a three-pointer at the buzzer.
“For it to work in our favor this time,” said Tar Heels guard Nate Britt, “does feel a little bit better.”
Kentucky’s Malik Monk played the role of Paige on Sunday, grabbing a handoff from Isaiah Briscoe, taking one dribble toward the top of the key and ris-