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Kansas
Kansas Holds Off Carolina in Final Four
April 5, 2008 | Men's Basketball
April 5, 2008
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SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- Brandon Rush notched 25 points and seven rebounds as Kansas held off a ferocious comeback by North Carolina for an 84-66 victory in the national semifinals on Saturday night.
Trailing 40-12 late in the first half, Tyler Hansbrough, Wayne Ellington and the Tar Heels made a valiant rally, getting as close as five points with nine minutes left, but ran out of steam in their effort to pull off the biggest Final Four comeback ever.
Kansas moved within a win of its first national championship since 1988, and the Jayhawks will play Memphis, an earlier 78-63 winner over UCLA, in the title game Monday.
The Jayhawks will play Memphis, an earlier 78-63 winner over UCLA, in the title game Monday.
"We know we've got another step to take Monday night," Sherron Collins said. "It's going to be a great matchup. They play fast, we play fast."
Collins had two assists, a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws during the decisive stretch that saw the Jayhawks (36-3) pad that five-point lead back to 15 and send the Tar Heels (36-3) into true desperation mode.
UNC Coach Roy Williams stood stoically as the clock ticked down, arms folded, nothing much left he could do. Tears usually come pretty quickly after the final buzzer of the season for him, and this season ended one game short of where many thought it might.
Still, at game's end he walked to the Kansas bench and shook every player's hand, hugging many of them.
Hansbrough, the national player of the year, finished with 17 points and nine rebounds--a typically gutsy effort. Ellington led the Heels with 18.
But for all their effort, this game was lost early.
"We've had a good year, but I don't think anybody's goal here was to be one of the top four teams in the country," Hansbrough said. "It's to be the top team. I'm frustrated with that."
The basket looked as big as the Alamo for the Jayhawks, who made 12 of their first 16 shots and went on an 18-0 run for a 33-10 lead with 9:31 left.
Meanwhile, North Carolina went a stunning 9:03 without a basket and the lead got as large as 40-12.
The Tar Heels turned this into controlled chaos over the first 10 minutes of the second half, altering Kansas shots and making pretty much everything they threw up--including an Ellington 3-pointer with 9:20 left that made it 58-53 and had the Tar Heels in a frenzy.
Throughout the rally, Self called timeout after timeout, and eventually, North Carolina cooled and Kansas ran away.
Picking a Jayhawks star was as easy as closing your eyes and pointing to a name on the stat sheet.
Freshman Cole Aldrich stood out, swatting three shots in the first half and altering more after coming off the bench en route to his eight-point, seven-rebound night. His highlight came after KU missed just its fifth shot of the game, more than 10 minutes into the first half, and he outgrappled Hansbrough for a rebound that resulted in two free throws. That made it 33-10.
Darrell Arthur had three buckets and an assist in the first five minutes to start the runaway. Russell Robinson had five points, four assists, three steals and three turnovers over the first 20 minutes.
