This time, Tar Heels survive
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 77-76 victory over Oregon after icecold Carolina missed its fourth straight free throw down the stretch.
All part of a career night for the North Carolina senior, who was on the bench last year when Villanova ended the Tar Heels’ chance at a title with a threepointer at the buzzer.
In this one, Meeks was front and center. He finished 11-for-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 Monday night 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.
The rest of his team shot 25 percent from the floor. Justin Jackson was one of the few to break through. He had 22 points on 6-for-13 shooting and made three three-pointers and two free throws to help the Heels to a double-digit lead midway through the second half.
Given the late lead and Oregon’s own awful shooting (37 percent), losing this one might have felt every bit as bad as the Villanova loss last year for this 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 cut Oregon’s deficit to one with seven seconds left it looked as if 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 was fouled with 4 seconds left.
Berry missed both, too. But Meeks outmuscled Jordan Bell for that final rebound, threw the ball 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.
Carolina was the best rebounding team in the country this season, grabbing an average of 13 more boards than its opponents.
Against the Ducks, the rebounding battle was even (43 each), but North Carolina got five more on the offensive glass, which resulted in 19 secondchance points — and the win.