North Carolina makes plays at the finish and earns title game redemption

Staff Writer

April 3, 2017 11:10 PM PT

Reporting from GLENDALE, Ariz. — It was an ending for eternity, one that North Carolina will want to relive frame by frame only one year removed from a finish to its season that made the Tar Heels hit the off button.

They can pause their screen on forward Kennedy Meeks’ hand stretching to block a shot by Gonzaga’s Nigel Williams-Goss. They can zoom in on the wide-bodied Meeks stepping in front of an outlet pass for a steal. And they can switch to slow motion for forward Isaiah Hicks’ drive for a one-handed leaning jumper.

Every angle will be pleasurable after North Carolina zipped past Gonzaga over the final 100 seconds of the national championship game Monday night, scoring the game’s final eight points on the way to a 71-65 victory at University of Phoenix Stadium.

As colorful confetti descended from the rafters, the Tar Heels could savor redemption alongside the very player who had broken their hearts last season. Kris Jenkins, the Villanova hero whose buzzer-beating shot had sunk North Carolina in the championship game, was seated in the Tar Heels’ cheering section. He had once been taken in by the parents of North Carolina guard Nate Britt, making him a Tar Heels fan for life.

“It’s a complete 180 from last year,” Hicks said of his feelings. “I feel like this is where, you know, what we worked for. It’s finally here.”

North Carolina (33-7) won its sixth national championship and third under coach Roy Williams, who also guided the Tar Heels to titles in 2005 and 2009. Williams nearly won again last season before Jenkins intervened in a game that Williams said he had not rewatched and probably never would.

The ending Monday was equally cruel for Gonzaga, which had pushed its more storied counterpart for most of a sloppy game marred by an overabundance of fouls and missed shots. Playing the final five minutes without freshman forward Zach Collins after he had fouled out, the Bulldogs had taken a 65-63 lead when Williams-Goss banked in a jumper with 1:53 left.

Everything else went North Carolina’s way.

Tar Heels forward Justin Jackson converted a layup while being fouled, resulting in a three-point play and a one-point lead for his team. Then Williams-Goss rolled an ankle and missed his final two shots after having scored his team’s previous eight points.

“Sprained it pretty good,” said Williams-Goss, who finished with 15 points. “It was the same ankle that I hurt last game, so it was still a little bit weak.”

North Carolina’s Joel Berry II missed a jumper but the Bulldogs couldn’t secure a defensive rebound, and a jump ball on an ensuing scrum gave possession back to the Tar Heels. Hicks made his one-handed jumper with 26 seconds left and Meeks blocked Williams-Goss’ final shot before Berry grabbed the rebound and fired an outlet pass that led to a Jackson dunk and a 70-65 lead for the Tar Heels.

When Meeks stepped in front of a subsequent outlet pass by Gonzaga’s Przemek Karnowski with eight seconds left, Tar Heels fans commenced celebrating.

Gonzaga’s 19th consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament ended as all the others had before it, with a crushing defeat. But the Bulldogs (37-2) had served notice that they were more than just scrappy overachievers from the West Coast Conference by making it to the season’s final game for the first time.

“They absolutely ignited a lot of stale people that were kind of bored with the Zags and saying that we haven’t been capable of achieving something like this,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said on the broadcast immediately after the game. “I think they got the whole world behind them and believing in them.”

Playing on two sprained ankles, Berry finished with 22 points while being selected the most outstanding player of the tournament. Jackson added 16 points for North Carolina, which won despite some epic struggles from beyond the arc, making only four of 27 three-point attempts. The Tar Heels probably didn’t mind that both teams entered the bonus with 12:49 left in a tightly called game, turning the final minutes largely into a battle of free throws.

Some of the fouls were even warranted, including a flagrant 1 called on Karnowski for smacking Berry in the face. Berry stepped to the free-throw line — and missed both attempts.

Everything else about the final minutes was finer for North Carolina than what transpired on this stage last year.

“We set a goal and we achieved it,” Britt said. “We came up short last year and it was our dream to get back. We made it happen.”

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Twitter: @latbbolch