Tar Heels, Bulldogs and hoop dreams
North Carolina holds off Gonzaga for 6th crown
On Monday night, the culmination of the NCAA’s March Madness came down to the final men’s match between Gonzaga and North Carolina. In the end, the Tar Heels prevailed over the Bulldogs, 71-65, and Lake Highland Prep graduate Joel Berry II cut the net in celebration.
GLENDALE, Ariz. — The day before the NCAA championship game, North Carolina coach Roy Williams wasn’t buying the Davidversus-Goliath theme being spun about the Tar Heels’ meeting with Gonzaga.
“That may be the way it’s perceived,” Williams said Sunday. “But when you start watching them, it’s not that much difference [between the teams]. I’m not trying to blow my opponent up. I believe throughout the course of the season they did a better job than anybody.”
The teams appeared evenly matched in Monday night’s game at University of Phoenix Stadium, with neither leading by more than five after halftime.
In the end it was North Carolina that maintained its crown as a college basketball blueblood, defeating the Bulldogs 71-65 for the Tar Heels’ sixth national title.
North Carolina point guard Joel Berry II, a Lake Highland Prep alum who shook off ankle injuries that have plagued him through the tournament, helped keep the Tar Heels within reach in the first half and finished with a game-high 22 points, earning the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player award.
Justin Jackson put the Tar Heels (33-7) in front with a three-point play with 1:40 to go, and Isaiah Hicks extended the lead to 68-65 by banking in an off-balance
jumper in the lane with 22 seconds left.
North Carolina’s Kennedy Meeks then came up with a blocked shot and a steal on consecutive Gonzaga possessions to seal the victory and avenge a lastsecond loss to Villanova in last year’s title game.
Gonzaga entered with only one loss in 38 games.
The 7,800-student Jesuit school in Spokane, Wash., had never made it to the Final Four before this season despite playing in 19 straight NCAA tournaments.
Williams, a friend and mentor to Gonzaga coach Mark Few, won his third championship as North Carolina’s coach, one more than Dean Smith won with the Tar Heels.
North Carolina struggled offensively in the first half, shooting 30.6 percent and trailing 30-23 with 3:02 left in the half.
The Tar Heels made only 2 of 13 3-pointers before halftime.
Yet the Tar Heels, who never trailed at halftime in their last four championship game appearances, were able to cut their deficit to 35-32 at the break.
After dominant games in Saturday’s semifinals, the expected big-man showdown wasn’t living up to the hype.
Gonzaga’s 7-foot-1 center, Przemek Karnowski, was scoreless at halftime, missing all four of his first-half shots while turning the ball over three times and fouling twice.
Bulldogs freshman Zach Collins, coming off a doubledouble in the Final Four victory over South Carolina, picked up his fourth foul less than five minutes into the second half.
Gonzaga sophomore guard Josh Perkins, whose season high was 18 points, led the Bulldogs with 13 points before halftime.
The Tar Heels are facing the uncertainty of an ongoing NCAA infractions case that has stretched into its third year, revolving around allegations of academic fraud in the athletic department.
“I know we did nothing wrong,” Williams said. “And I find it hard to believe that it could go that far.”
Berry is the first former area high school product to be on an NCAA championship team since two players with Orlando-area ties were on the UF teams that won back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007.
Taurean Green, who played for Lake Howell as a ninth-grader before moving to Fort Lauderdale, started for the Gators in both of those seasons. Jack Berry, a Dr. Phillips alum who walked on at Florida, was a bench player.
Another former DP standout, Calvin McCall, was a junior reserve on Maryland’s 2002 NCAA title team. McCall signed with the Terrapins for football but shifted his focus to basketball.