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North Carolina 77, Oregon 76: The Tar Heels are headed back to the title game.
GLENDALE, Ariz. North Carolina missed the shots. No surprise there.
Kennedy Meeks saved the game. No surprise there, either.
Meeks, the only Tar Heel who could shoot straight Saturday night, grabbed the game-saving offensive rebound in a 7776 victory over Oregon after ice-cold Carolina missed its fourth straight free-throw attempt down the stretch.
All part of a career night for the North Carolina senior, who was on the bench last year when Villanova devastatingly ended the Tar Heels’ chance at a title with a three-pointer at the buzzer.
In this one, Meeks was front and center. He finished 11 of 13 to match his career high with 25 points. And he had 14 rebounds, eight on the offensive glass and none more important than the last one, which secured a Mondaynight date with Gonzaga in the title game.
“If it wasn’t for Kennedy Meeks, we wouldn’t have been in the basketball game,” Carolina coach Roy Williams said.
Meeks had plenty to mop up for.
The rest of his team shot a brick-a-minute 14 of 55 from the floor (25%). Justin Jackson was one of the few to break through. He had 22 points on 6-of-13 shooting and made 3 three-pointers and two free throws to help the Heels to a double-digit lead and put them on the verge of a runaway midway through the second half.
Given the late lead and Oregon’s own awful shooting (37%), losing this one might have felt every bit as bad as the Villanova loss last year for this, a team on a mission with only one acceptable destination.
North Carolina (32-7) led the entire second half and appeared poised, time after time, for a knockout of the never-say-die Ducks (33-6).
Never happened. And after Keith Smith’s layup pulled Oregon within one with 7 seconds left, it looked like it would come down to free throws.
It did, and it wasn’t pretty.
First, Meeks got fouled, stepped to the line and rimmed out two. But Theo Pinson got inside and batted the ball back out to Joel Berry II, who then got fouled with 4 seconds left.
Berry missed both, too. But Meeks outmuscled Jordan Bell for that final rebound, threw it outside, and this ugly affair was over.
“My main focus was, if Joel missed the second free throw, to hit the offensive glass hard,” Meeks said.
Tyler Dorsey, nicknamed “Mr. March” for his sensational shooting in the tournament, led Oregon with 21 points but scored more from the free-throw line (12) than from three-point range (nine), where he came in shooting 65% in the tournament.
The Tar Heels were happy afterward. But boy did they make it interesting.
“I feel very lucky but that’s OK,” Williams said. “We’re one of only two teams playing Monday night.”