OR isn’t because it couldn’t come up with the big rebound, but coach Dana Altman didn’t point a finger. The Gamecocks were down as many as 14 in the second half, but responded with 14 straight points to tie it at 65. But suddenly, SC – a No. 7 seed making a surprise trip to its first-ever Final Four – fought back. OR found a lead midway through the first half. Assists-Oregon 7 (Ennis 3), North Carolina 16 (Pinson 5). Tyler Dorsey and Dillon Brooks were scoreless over a good part of the first half.
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The evenly matched pairing makes it four straight years that the championship game has featured a point spread of less than 3 points.
The 2017 NCAA Championship game could be a challenge for Jackson, who will face off against Gonzaga’s 7-footers, senior Przemek Karnowski and freshman Zach Collins.
Meek’s last rebound was his 14th, and he snatched it away from Bell and Payton Pritchard. Collins also had six blocks. Luke Maye, who had become a folk hero around Chapel Hill after making the last-second jump shot to beat Kentucky in the Elite Eight, didn’t make a shot from the field and got in foul trouble.
The Oregon Ducks has 12 turnovers in the first half after three NCAA Tournament games with just 11 turnovers over that span. It is a good rebounding team, too, although not like North Carolina.
In those final five seconds, the Ducks had managed to pull to within one point at 77-76 with five seconds left to go. The Bulldogs were especially deadly from deep down the stretch, hitting all three 3-point attempts in the final six minutes to fuel the late run. “I tell them if you line up on the rebound spot, when your teammate is shooting the free throw, you’re trying to rebound”.
Meeks wasn’t alone in his dynamic offensive performance for North Carolina, as Justin Jackson dropped 22 of his own.
BROOKS STRUGGLES: Dillon Brooks has been the leader for OR all season, but struggled, finishing with 10 points on 2-for-11 shooting before fouling out.
“There was a scrum there, and we didn’t come up with either one, so Jordan felt bad”, Altman said.
Still, Oregon almost pulled off the upset win. “Three hundred fifty-one teams start playing, and this is the second year in a row we’re one of two left”.
After Dorsey made a 3-pointer with 46 seconds left, the Ducks called timeout. But Meeks outmuscled Jordan Bell for that final rebound, threw it outside, and this ugly affair was over.
Brooks fouled out with about a minute remaining, leaving the Ducks without one of their top threats.
North Carolina, the top seed in the South Regional, used its size and experience to hold off OR 77-76 on Saturday before 77,612 at University of Phoenix Stadium. Twice, with in the final 5.2 seconds, North Carolina went to the free throw line for two shots with a 77-76 lead. This was the first Final Four appearance in the school’s history, just 22 years after they made their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1995.
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North Carolina’s Joel Berry II (2) takes a shot against Oregon’s Kavell Bigby-Williams (35) during the second half in the semifinals of the Final Four NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 1, 2017, in Glendale, Ariz.
