One moment, North Carolina faced the prospect of an epic collapse. The next, the Tar Heels were moving on to the Final Four.
All because of Luke Maye.
He calmly rose for the jumper with three-tenths of a second left that lifted his team past Kentucky, 75-73, in an NCAA tournament South Regional final on Sunday evening at FedExForum.
Maye’s jumper served as a strong rebuttal to a three-pointer by Kentucky’s Malik Monk, whose shot had forged an improbable tie after the Wildcats had trailed by seven points with less than a minute to go. In that final minute, three-pointers by De’Aaron Fox and Monk plus that second Monk three-pointer had resulted in a 73-73 tie with nine seconds left, sending Kentucky fans into a tizzy.
It wouldn’t last.
Maye took a pass from Theo Pinson and rose for the jumper that would give him the last of his 17 points, sending the Tar Heels (31-7) into a national semifinal against Oregon on Saturday at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.
“Luuuuuuke!” chants could be heard as Maye walked toward the sideline for a postgame interview.
North Carolina had looked beaten as it walked toward the huddle only minutes earlier.
Kentucky forward Isaac Humphries had been the bit player turned star when he entered the game for an ailing Derek Willis and scored eight quick points, nearly matching his 10 points from the middle of February through Kentucky’s regional semifinal victory over UCLA, when Humphries went scoreless.
Humphries pumped his arm after making a jumper that put the Wildcats ahead by five points — the last of a stretch of 12 consecutive scoring possessions for Kentucky — prompting a North Carolina timeout.
Something said in the huddle took hold. The Tar Heels scored the next 10 points. There were jumpers by Pinson and Justin Jackson, four free throws and a driving layup by Joel Berry that powered North Carolina ahead in the rematch between the teams that met three months ago in Las Vegas, a wild three-point victory by the Wildcats.
Jackson finished with 19 points for North Carolina, and Fox and Bam Adebayo led Kentucky with 13 apiece.
North Carolina provided an opening for Kentucky by missing its first five shots to start the second half, the Wildcats briefly seizing a one-point lead. The Tar Heels’ first make was a big one, a three-pointer by Jackson in which he was bumped by Monk and made the resulting free throw to complete a four-point play.
Then it was “Luuuuuuuke” time, Maye navigating around Adebayo for a layup, sidestepping a defender for a three-pointer and adding three more points to the scoreboard when he scored inside while being fouled by Willis, earning a free throw that gave the Tar Heels a 53-47 lead and prompted fans to chant his name as he returned to the bench.
The first half was all about frustration for Kentucky and its fans.
Fox, the not-so-sly hero of the Wildcats’ victory over UCLA with 39 points in a semifinal on Friday, picked up two fouls and played only eight minutes. Kentucky fans howled in disgust when North Carolina’s Stilman White bowled Fox over while dribbling in transition, only for a foul to be called on Fox.
“You’re missing a good game, ref!” a Kentucky fan screamed at one point.
There were other oddities for the Wildcats. The normally high-volume shooter Monk took only five shots in the first half and scored six points.
Neither Fox nor Monk faced the aggravation of Adebayo, who missed a dunk, had a tip-in disallowed because of a basket interference call and had another basket waved off after being called for an offensive foul. He was scoreless in the first half, missing all five of his shots.
Isaiah Briscoe and Dominique Hawkins kept the Wildcats from completely getting overrun by combining for 15 points. Briscoe also forced a turnover late in the first half after wrestling the ball away from North Carolina’s Nate Britt, leading to a frustration foul on Britt.
Kentucky nearly carried the momentum into halftime. Fox drove into a wall of Tar Heels defenders and fell down, but there was no whistle, only a cascade of boos as both teams walked toward their locker rooms with North Carolina holding a 38-33 halftime lead.
