Redemption: Tar Heels take title over Gonzaga in ugly game

By EDDIE PELLS
Associated Press

GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) It's OK, Carolina, you can open your eyes.

An unwatchable game turned into a beautiful night for the Tar Heels, who turned a free-throw contest into a championship they've been waiting an entire year to celebrate.

Justin Jackson delivered the go-ahead 3-point play with 1:40 left Monday and North Carolina pulled away for a 71-65 win over Gonzaga that washed away a year's worth of heartache.

It was, in North Carolina's words, a redemption tour - filled with extra time on the practice court and the weight room, all fueled by a devastating loss in last year's title game on Kris Jenkins' 3-point dagger at the buzzer for Villanova.

"Just unreal that we get a second chance at this," junior Theo Pinson said, recounting a pre-game conversation with teammate Joel Berry II. "Not a lot of people can say they can do that. I told him, `We're about to take this thing. I'm about to give everything I got.' I knew he would, too, We just didn't want to come up short again."

But to say everything went right for Roy Williams' team at this Final Four would be less than the truth.

The Tar Heels (33-7) followed a terrible-shooting night in the semifinal with an equally ice-cold performance in the final - going 4 for 27 from 3-point land and 26 for 73 overall.

Gonzaga, helped by 8 straight points from Nigel Williams-Goss, took a 2-point lead with 1:52 left, but the next possession was the game-changer.

Jackson took a zinger of a pass under the basket from Pinson and converted the shot, then the ensuing free throw to take the lead for good. Moments later, Williams-Goss twisted an ankle and could not elevate for a jumper that would've given the Bulldogs the lead.

Isaiah Hicks made a basket to push the lead to 3, then Kennedy Meeks, in foul trouble all night (who wasn't?), blocked Williams-Goss' shot and Jackson got a slam on the other end to put some icing on title No. 6 for the Tar Heels.

Williams got his third championship, putting him one ahead of his mentor, Dean Smith, and now behind only John Wooden, Mike Krzyzewski and Adolph Rupp.

"I think of Coach Smith, there's no question," Williams said. "I don't think I should be mentioned in the same sentence with him. But we got three because I've got these guys with me and that's all I care about right now - my guys."

Berry recovered from ankle injuries to lead the Tar Heels, but needed 19 shots for his 22 points. Jackson had 16 but went 0 for 9 from 3. Overall, the Tar Heels actually shot a percentage point worse than they did in Saturday night's win over Oregon.

Thank goodness for free throws.

They went 15 for 26 from the line and, in many corners, this game will be remembered for these three men: Michael Stephens, Verne Harris and Mike Eades, the referees who called 27 fouls in the second half, completely busted up the flow of the game and sent Meeks, Gonzaga's 7-footers Przemek Karnowski and Zach Collins, and a host of others to the bench in foul trouble.

The game "featured" 52 free throws. Both teams were in the bonus with 13 minutes left. Somehow, Collins was the only player to foul out.

Most bizarre sequence: With 8:02 left, Berry got called for a foul for (maybe) making contact with Karnowski and stripping the ball from the big man's hands. But as Karnowski was flailing after the ball, he inadvertently grabbed Berry around the neck. After a long delay, the refs called Karnowski for a flagrant foul of his own.

"I'm not going to talk about refs," Karnowski said. "It was just a physical game."

Zags coach Mark Few handled it with class, calling the refs "three of the best officials in the entire country," and insisting they did a fine job.

He might have wanted further review on the scrum with 50 seconds left. The refs were taking heat on social media for calling a held ball, which gave possession to the Tar Heels, on a pile-up underneath the Carolina basket. It set up the Hicks layup to put Carolina ahead by 3. One problem: Meeks' right hand looks to be very much touching out of bounds while he's trying to rip away the ball.

"That was probably on me," Few said. "From my angle, it didn't look like an out of bounds situation or I would have called a review. That's tough to hear."

The Bulldogs (37-2), the Cinderella-turned-Godzilla team from the small school in the West Coast Conference, tried to keep the big picture in mind. Twenty years ago, this sort of run at that sort of place looked virtually impossible. With less than 2 minutes left, they had the lead in the national title game.

"We broke the glass ceiling everyone said we couldn't break," junior forward Johnathan Williams said.

And North Carolina got over a hump that, at times this season, felt like a mountain.

"They wanted redemption," Williams said. "I put it on the locker room up on the board - one of the things we had to be tonight was tough enough. I think this group was tough enough tonight."

NCAA title game: Blue blood vs. new blood

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GLENDALE, Ariz. -- It's the blue blood vs. the new blood.

The contrast in the NCAA Tournament championship game is clear: North Carolina, winners of five titles and appearing in its record 20th Final Four, is in one corner. Gonzaga, in its first Final Four after spending almost two decades chugging up the mountaintop, is in the other.

"To be playing in the last game of the year is just crazy cool," said Bulldogs coach Mark Few.

But make no mistake. The programs might hang different kinds of banners in their arenas, but this is a heavyweight matchup all the way. These are two experienced, balanced, No. 1 seeds ready to throw down Monday at 9:20 p.m. ET from University of Phoenix Stadium.

North Carolina's Roy Williams will be coaching in his 100th NCAA Tournament game and going for his third national title. He has rings from 2005 and 2009, coming up just short of adding the 2016 title to his collection as the Tar Heels lost to Villanova on a last-second shot.

"You know, on game night, kids gotta play. That's the bottom line," Williams said. "I've never won a game from the bench. I may have lost some, but I know I've never won one. We've gotta go out and play and do the best we can."

North Carolina (32-7) won the ACC regular-season title by two games and knocked off a No. 4 seed (Butler), a No. 2 seed (Kentucky) and a No. 3 seed (Oregon on Saturday night) to advance to the title game. The Tar Heels' bona-fides are unquestioned.

Plenty have doubted Gonzaga. The Bulldogs (37-1) have had their doubters because they play in the weaker West Coast Conference, and their last two games in the tournament were against upstarts -- 11th-seeded Xavier and seventh-seeded South Carolina.

"No one's here by accident," said Gonzaga point guard Nigel Williams-Goss. "I think the respect thing has to go out the window. You have 37 wins in a college season, I mean that's just unbelievable. And to be playing the last game of the season, we have a chance to play for it all. And we're here to win it."

Williams-Goss is the engine of a Gonzaga attack that shoots 50.8 percent from the field, second-best in the country. His 16.9 scoring average leads five Bulldogs in double figures.

Senior center Przemek Karnowski is a load inside at 7-foot-1 and 300 pounds, while freshman 7-footer Zach Collins is a future first-round NBA draft choice. He had 14 points against the Gamecocks, setting career highs with 13 rebounds and six blocked shots.

They will be matched up, in part, against North Carolina's sturdy man in the middle, senior Kennedy Meeks. He is not often called upon to be a leading scorer, but when the Tar Heels went cold against Oregon, Meeks dominated with 25 points on 11-of-13 shooting. He added 14 rebounds, eight on the offensive glass.

North Carolina leads the country in rebounding margin and offensive rebounds.

"I think our main objective every game is to hit teams early in the mouth, whether that's attacking them on the offensive end or playing great defense," Meeks said.

Forward Justin Jackson averages a team-best 18.3 points. Point guard Joel Berry II, averaging 14.5 points per game, has been dealing with two balky ankles. He played 35 minutes Saturday night but was just 2 of 14 from the field.

Can he guard Williams-Goss?

Will the Tar Heels assert their usual dominance in the paint?

Will Jackson go off?

Can Gonzaga 3-point ace Jordan Mathews be a shooting star?

Will the last team standing be blue blood or new blood?

For North Carolina, it's more of the same. For Gonzaga, the peak has never been closer.

"I've had some really, really tough teams. I've had some really close teams. I've had some teams that have been crazy efficient on the offensive end and ones that have been pretty darned good on the defensive end that probably didn't get credit for it," Few said. "These guys are all of that. All of it."

Meeks shoots, and rebounds, and saves the day for Tar Heels

By EDDIE PELLS
AP National Writer

GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) 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, muscled away the game-saving offensive rebound in a 77-76 victory over Oregon after ice-cold 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 in last year's championship game when Villanova devastatingly ended the Tar Heels' chance at a title with a 3-pointer 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 of which came on the offensive glass and none of which was more important than the last. It secured a Monday-night date with Gonzaga in the title game, where the Tar Heels (32-7) will go for the program's sixth title.

"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 for.

The rest of his team shot a brick-a-minute 14 for 55 from the floor (25 percent). Justin Jackson was one of the few to break through. He had 22 points on 6-for-13 shooting, including a five-minute stretch with three 3-pointers and two free throws that helped the Heels to a double-digit lead and put them on the verge of a runaway midway through the second half.

Given the 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. This is, after all, a team on a mission with only one acceptable destination.

"I just didn't want to lose another game off a winning shot," said Joel Berry II, who missed the free throw that Meeks tore away from Jordan Bell to ice the game. "I wish we would have closed it out."

Didn't quite happen. And after Keith Smith's layup pulled Oregon within 77-76 with 7 seconds left (should Oregon have pulled it out for a game-tying 3? Maybe so), it looked like 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 Berry, who then got fouled with 4 seconds left and took his turn at the line.

Berry missed both, too. But Meeks got inside of Bell for that final rebound, threw it outside to Pinson, who dribbled out the clock to end this ugly affair.

"My main focus was, if Joel missed the second free throw, to hit the offensive glass hard," Meeks said.

Bell finished with 13 points and 16 rebounds, but needed No. 17 to give the Ducks a last shot.

"Jordan felt terrible," Oregon coach Dana Altman said. "But I told him, `Buddy, you got 16 rebounds, we wouldn't have been in this position if it hadn't been for you.'"

That it came down to Carolina winning on the boards was no big surprise. This was the best rebounding team in the country this season, grabbing an average of 13 more boards than their opponents over the course of the season.

Against the Ducks, the rebounding battle was even (43 each), though North Carolina got five more on the offensive glass, which resulted in 19 second-chance points, 10 more shots and, eventually, the win.

"I think coach, definitely, when we're gone, he's going to tell that story," said Pinson, who finished with eight points and eight boards. "That just shows how big offensive rebounding is. Boxing out at the end of the game. I'm sure (Bell) wished he'd boxed out right there."

ANKLE TROUBLE: Berry played, as promised, but his shot was troubled by the injured ankles that limited him in practice all week. He was 2 for 14 from the floor and 5 for 9 from the line and finished with 11 points.

MR. MARCH: Tyler Dorsey had been lighting it up through the tournament for Oregon, shooting 65 percent from 3, but the Tar Heels got in his face early and he never got on track. His 21 points came on 11 shots from the field and he only went 3 for 7 from behind the arc. Oregon shot 3 for 18 from 3 in the second half.

BROOKS STRUGGLES: Dillon Brooks has been the leader for Oregon all season, but struggled, finishing with 10 points on 2-for-11 shooting before fouling out.

GOOD COMPANY: According to ESPN Stats and Info, Meeks joins Larry Bird, Ed O'Bannon, Carmelo Anthony and Danny Manning as the only players to reach 25 points and 14 rebounds in the Final Four over the last 40 years.

NEXT UP: Carolina vs. Gonzaga in the title game Monday. Ducks' season over after falling a game short of returning to the title game for the first time since 1939, the first NCAA Tournament.

Gonzaga makes first NCAA title game with win over S Carolina

By JIM O'CONNELL
AP Basketball Writer

GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) Their star guard was outstanding. Their big men dominated inside. Still, it came down to some last-second strategy for Gonzaga to move on to the NCAA Tournament championship game for the first time.

Nigel Williams-Goss scored 23 points, Gonzaga's big men combined for 27 and the Bulldogs kept South Carolina from taking a game-tying shot in a 77-73 victory Saturday night in a matchup of first-time teams at the Final Four.

"Just an awesome, awesome basketball game, with just how hard both teams competed," Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. "It took everything we had to hold them off and come back."

The Bulldogs' 7-footers, senior Przemek Karnowski and freshman Zach Collins, took care of things on both ends of the court, combining for 18 rebounds. Collins also had a career-high six blocks.

"That's my job is to go in and rim protect," said Collins, who had 14 points and 13 rebounds. "I had four fouls today. But I thought, you know, getting those blocked shots would help us."

Gonzaga (37-1), the top seed in the West Regional, will face North Carolina, the top seed in the South, for the title on Monday night.

"To be playing the last game of the year, that's crazy cool," Few said.

Williams-Goss missed a shot with 12.7 seconds left and South Carolina rebounded and called a timeout, trailing 75-72. South Carolina passed the ball around and Gonzaga fouled Sindarius Thornwell before he could shoot with 3.5 seconds left. Thornwell made the first free throw and missed the second on purpose in hopes of his teammates grabbing an offensive rebound. Killian Tillie rebounded for Gonzaga, was fouled and made two free throws to cement the game.

"We had been practicing it all year and we always want to foul under 6 (seconds)," Few said. "Josh Perkins did a job being really patient and not fouling on the shot. The second part is you've got to get the rebound, and that's what's been difficult for us at times. They executed great."

Thornwell said the idea was to get in position for one last quick shot.

"The plan was to miss it left and hopefully Chris (Silva) could tap it out to somebody," he said.

Williams-Goss, a second-team All-American, led the Bulldogs to a 14-point lead in the second half but it disappeared quickly as the Gamecocks (26-11) went on a 14-point run to grab a 67-65 lead with about 7 minutes to play.

"When things got tough we banded together and pulled through," said Williams-Goss, who had six assists and a brief injury scare after turning an ankle underneath the basket.

"There was no way I was going to come out of the game. This is the last two games of the season," Williams-Goss said. "Now we're 40 minutes from a championship."

Collins and Karnowksi then accounted for the next 7 points, including a 3-pointer by Collins and a thundering dunk by Karnowski.

South Carolina still wasn't done. The seventh-seeded Gamecocks scored 5 straight to get within 74-72 with just over 2 minutes left.

"Since the beginning of the season that's what we worked for, moments like this," Silva said. "And we try to do our best to respond the way we learn how to respond."

PJ Dozier led the Gamecocks with 17 points and Thornwell, the leading scorer in the NCAA Tournament at 25.8 points per game during the first four rounds, finished with 15 on 4-for-12 shooting after starting slow.

"They just crowd the paint," Thornwell said. "They forced me to pass it out on my drives. And just protecting the rim real well."

Karnowski went down on the court in the first half after being poked in the right eye as he took a shot underneath the basket. He left for the last 5 minutes of the half, but Collins picked him up, finishing with 8 points at halftime.

"I got blocked but he just put the finger in my eye," Karnowski said. "I had blurry vision, a little bit shadow. I couldn't really open it."

"Throughout the whole second half it was getting better and better," he said.

BIG PICTURE

South Carolina: The Gamecocks entered the tournament having last won a game in 1973. They had four wins to reach the Final Four, including victories over the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 seeds in the East region.

Gonzaga: The Bulldogs now have a chance to play for a title after already getting further than ever before in the NCAA Tournament. Gonzaga had made three Elite Eights without advancing to the Final Four.

BLOCK PARTY

The teams combined for 14 blocked shots, eight by Gonzaga. Collins had six and Silas Melson had two for the Bulldogs. Silva had three for the Gamecocks, while Thornwell had two and Dozier had one.

THREES ABOUND

Gonzaga, which had a school-record 12 3-pointers in the regional final win over Xavier, went 9 for 19 from beyond the arc Saturday. Jordan Mathews was 4 for 8 while Williams-Goss and Melson had two each and Collins had one.

NUMBERS

Silva had 13 rebounds for the Gamecocks. ... South Carolina shot 37.9 percent (25 of 66) for the game while the Bulldogs were 29 of 60 (48.3 percent). ... Gonzaga committed 12 turnovers and the Gamecocks had just five.

UP NEXT

Gonzaga meets North Carolina for the national championship on Monday night.

Surprising Oregon faces old-school UNC in Final Four

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North Carolina is the best rebounding team in the country. Oregon is down a big guy.

The Tar Heels reek of old-school. They are the only blue-blood in the Final Four. They have an old-school coach in Roy Williams. They have an old-school, low-post big man in Kennedy Meeks, who dominated Kentucky in the South Regional final, grabbing 17 rebounds and blocking four shots.

North Carolina (31-7) has a national-best rebounding margin of plus-13 per game. And the Tar Heels are rebounding nearly 42 percent of their missed shots entering Saturday's game in Glendale, Ariz., tipping off at 8:49 p.m. ET.

"We feel like it's extremely important to get the other team in foul trouble," Williams said. "The biggest way to get their big guys in foul trouble is to go inside. That's something that's been important for us ever since I started coaching, and I still believe that. And Kennedy does a great job rebounding the basketball. ...

"I do think you have to have some guys that can make 3-point shots. But I've seen very few teams win the NCAA championship just shooting threes, because everybody's got somebody inside that can give you a little balance."

Oregon (33-5) provides a contrast. It is a good rebounding team, too, although not like North Carolina. The Ducks do it more through athleticism and effort, especially after losing shot-blocking stretch-forward Chris Boucher to a torn ACL in the Pac-12 tournament.

The Ducks, playing in their first Final Four since winning the inaugural NCAA Tournament in 1939, often play with 6-foot-7 wing Dillon Brooks at power forward next to active 6-9 center Jordan Bell.

Bell had 11 points, 13 rebounds and eight blocks in a 74-60 takedown of overall No. 1 seed Kansas in an Elite Eight game in Kansas City, Mo.

"I can't overemphasize Jordan controlling the paint in the first 10 minutes of the game and just putting a thought in their mind that they were not going to get easy baskets," Ducks coach Dana Altman said.

While many wrote off Oregon after the Boucher injury, the Ducks got hot behind a tight rotation that is not going much past six players.

Sophomore guard Tyler Dorsey has scored at least 20 points in seven consecutive games. He made 25 of 40 3-point shots in the past six games.

Bell, the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, has double-digit rebounds in six straight games. Hardly anyone plays harder than Brooks, the Pac-12 Player of the Year who is averaging 16.3 points per game.

"I think all the guys have picked it up a little bit, just knowing that Chris isn't there," Altman said. "But we will have our work cut out for us on Saturday. North Carolina is probably the best rebounding team that we faced all year. They score pretty good on the first shot, but their offensive rebounding numbers are off the charts."

Much of the focus before Saturday will be on the health of North Carolina point guard Joel Berry II, who is dealing with two balky ankles.

"Hopefully by the time we get to Thursday or Friday, he'll be able to do some things in practice," Williams said, "but I'm scared to death right now because I don't know."

The Tar Heels have been led all season by All-America wing Justin Jackson, who is averaging 18.2 points per game and shooting 38 percent from 3-point range (101 of 266). Berry is averaging 14.6 points, Meeks is at 12.3, and forward Isaiah Hicks scores 12.1 per game.

Forward Luke Maye came off the bench to average 16.5 points and 7.5 rebounds in two games in the South regional in Memphis. His jumper with 0.3 seconds left beat Kentucky 75-73.

North Carolina, which was the top seed in the South, is in the Final Four for the second consecutive season, having lost in the 2016 final when Villanova's Kris Jenkins hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer. The Ducks, the No. 3 seed in the Midwest, have taken a step further than last season, when they lost in the Elite Eight.

"This is a bigger stage," Altman said. "Our guys are aware of that."

Role reversal: Gonzaga to face underdog South Carolina

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Gonzaga, often cast as the gutty underdog, finally finished the climb to its first Final Four, doing so as a No. 1 seed. The Bulldogs' reward: playing a gutty underdog.

South Carolina, which advanced to the Final Four as a seventh seed in the East, is hardly a Cinderella, coming from the Southeastern Conference. But the Gamecocks seemed more like bracket-filler than bracket-buster when they lost five of their last seven games before the NCAA Tournament.

The combination of high-scoring senior guard Sindarius Thornwell and some hellacious wear-you-down defense has been more than good enough in the past two weeks, however, as South Carolina knocked off the No. 2 (Duke), No. 3 (Baylor) and No. 4 (Florida) seeds in the East.

The Gamecocks, like Gonzaga, will be appearing in their first Final Four when the game tips off Saturday at 6:09 p.m. ET in Glendale, Ariz.

"We're defending at a high clip again, which is allowing us to get out in the open court and get opportunities," South Carolina coach Frank Martin said. "And our inside play has gotten good again. It kind of disappeared on us there the last month of the season. But our inside guys have played well in the NCAA Tournament."

The Gamecocks (26-10) will need that against a big Gonzaga frontline that features 7-foot, 300-pound Przemek Karnowski, blue-chip 7-foot freshman Zach Collins and 6-9 forward Johnathan Williams. The player who really makes the Zags go, though, is Washington transfer point guard Nigel Williams-Goss, who was selected to the 10-man Wooden Award All-America team.

Williams-Goss had 23 points, eight rebounds and four assists as Gonzaga blew out Xavier 83-59 in the West Regional final, showing the offensive and defensive efficiency that have been season-long hallmarks. Critics might have doubted the Bulldogs' level of competition in the West Coast Conference, but Gonzaga showed steel in surviving the defensive pressure of fourth-seeded West Virginia in the Sweet 16.

Williams-Goss, Williams (a transfer from Missouri) and Cal transfer guard Jordan Mathews have helped transform Gonzaga (36-1) into a more dangerous, more athletic team.

"It was no secret that we were coming in here to do something as a collective unit," Williams-Goss said. "If we wanted to do things individually, we would have just stayed where we were at."

The best player on the court might be Thornwell, the SEC Player of the Year. He is averaging 25.8 points in the NCAA Tournament, scoring at least 24 in each outing.

"His kind of whole package is very dangerous," Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. "Just kind of the intensity that he brings to the game. He can hurt you on the glass. He can hurt you shooting it. He can hurt you off the bounce. He gets to the free throw line a lot. Yeah, he's definitely going to be a handful."

South Carolina can't be counted on to hit from 3-point range (33.7 percent for the season), but the Gamecocks allow just 29.8 percent from behind the arc.

They have forced an average of 17 turnovers in four NCAA Tournament games, outscoring every team in the second half by an average of 13.5 points. They unleashed a 65-point second half against Duke.

That defense will put a lot of pressure on Williams-Goss, who averages a team-high 16.7 points as well as 4.6 assists. Karnowski averages 12.2 points in a balanced scoring effort.

Martin counters inside with 6-9 Chris Silva and 6-10 freshman post Maik Kotsar, who has been playing well, including hitting a late mid-range jumper that was key to holding off Florida.

"We play in the SEC," Martin said Tuesday. "I understand some of you guys never watch us play, but, my god, anyone see Alabama play? They were big. Anyone see LSU? They were big.

"If we were one of those smaller mid-major schools, this is where you start kind of worrying if can you handle size. ... Our team has been exposed to everything: size, athleticism, winning, losing, good, bad, suspensions. Those kids have not thrown in the towel or blinked one time all year."

Maye hits late jumper to lift North Carolina to Final Four

By TERESA M. WALKER
Associated Press

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) Roy Williams went all "Gone With the Wind" when a player asked about his North Carolina Tar Heels making the last shot Sunday to edge Kentucky to the Final Four.

And the coincidence that the Tar Heels have been on the other end of similar shots recently, like in the 2016 national championship and a wild December game against the Wildcats.

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a ...," Williams said with a smile, quoting Clark Gable's famed line as Rhett Butler. "I didn't care what he was talking about."

Luke Maye hit a jumper with 0.3 seconds left and top-seeded North Carolina held off Kentucky 75-73 to earn the Tar Heels' second straight trip to the Final Four, winning a showdown of college basketball's elite in the South Regional.

The national semifinal will be the 20th for North Carolina, where the Tar Heels (31-7) will play Midwest champ Oregon on Saturday in Glendale, Arizona.

North Carolina took control with 12 straight points over the final 5 minutes, a run similar to what it used a week ago to beat Arkansas. The Tar Heels finished this game with a 16-9 run. Kentucky's freshmen De'Aaron Fox hit a 3 and Malik Monk quickly added two more, one with 7.2 seconds left and defenders in his face to tie the game at 73.

"I probably should have called time out," Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "It entered my mind, but they got that son of a B in so quick, I couldn't get to anybody to do it. I needed to stop that right there."

Theo Pinson drove enough toward the basket to pick off Maye's defender, then passed back to Maye. The sophomore from Huntersville, North Carolina, knocked it down for the win with his feet on the 3-point line.

"I just kind of stepped back, and he gave me the ball and I just shot it, and luckily it went in," Maye said. "It was a great feeling."

Maye finished with a career-high 17 points off the bench for North Carolina. Justin Jackson scored 19 points, and Joel Berry II added 11 on a sprained left ankle.

The Wildcats had one last chance, but Derek Willis' inbounds pass went out of bounds on the far end.

Kentucky (32-6) will miss out on the Final Four for the second straight year. Willis and sophomore Isaac Humphries left the court with towels over their heads, and Fox was the last to leave.

The Wildcats had hoped their talented freshmen would carry them. Bam Adebayo and Fox each had 13 points, and Monk, the Southeastern Conference player of the year, finished with 12. Fox and Adebayo wept side by side in the locker room.

"That shot is just playing back and forth in my head," Fox said. "It's going to be difficult to get over."

Never before had the NCAA Tournament pitted powerhouse programs that have so dominated March. This South final featured Kentucky with the most tournament wins all-time with 124 and North Carolina just behind with 120 (now 121).

This was just the fourth time these blue bloods have met in a regional final. The result was much the same as the others, with North Carolina now 3-1 against Kentucky as the Tar Heels avenged a 103-100 loss on Dec. 17 in Las Vegas.

Kentucky led for less than 4 minutes in a game North Carolina had a big edge on the boards (44-34) and inside, where the Tar Heels outscored the Wildcats 34-26.

Officials didn't help the flow of this game calling fouls left and right, though Kentucky took the brunt with its star trio of freshmen all picking up two fouls each in the half. Fox played only 8 minutes of the first half after picking up his second foul with 12:23 left. Adebayo easily was the most frustrated as he missed all five shots in the half with Kennedy Meeks swatting away one of his dunk attempts.

North Carolina led by as much as 9 a couple times before both teams went into shooting slumps. The Tar Heels led 38-33 at halftime.

BIG PICTURE

Kentucky: Nobody has played in more Elite Eights than the Wildcats with this their 33rd overall and sixth under Calipari. Kentucky now is 4-2 with Calipari in regional finals. Fox and Monk combined for 71 points in the December win over North Carolina led by Monk's 47. This time, they combined for 25.

North Carolina: Memphis and the South Regional have been very good to the Tar Heels. This is the second straight time the Tar Heels have been the region's top seed and advanced to the Final Four through Memphis, and now they can only hope to replicate their success of 2009 when they won the program's fifth national title. Williams improved to 9-4 in regional finals overall and 5-3 at North Carolina.

BERRY'S ANKLES

Williams said Berry aggravated the right ankle he sprained in the opening weekend of the tournament in practice Saturday. Berry then rolled his left ankle in the opening 5 minutes. The junior guard played 33 minutes.

UP NEXT

North Carolina plays Oregon in the national semifinal. Kentucky prepares for another batch of freshmen heading to the NBA.

South Carolina headed to Final Four, beats Florida 77-70

By JIM O'CONNELL
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) South Carolina added a missing piece to its rich basketball history.

The school of Frank McGuire, Kevin Joyce, Brian Winters, Mike Dunleavy and Alex English is going to the Final Four for the first time.

Add the names Sindarius Thornwell and Frank Martin to the top of the list.

Thornwell's 26 points and the Gamecocks' swarming zone defense meant a 77-70 victory over Florida on Sunday and a berth in the Final Four.

Martin, he of the booming voice and terrifying faces, led the seventh-seeded Gamecocks to the biggest victory in school history and now they will face Gonzaga, the No. 1 seed from the West Regional, in the Final Four on Saturday at Glendale, Arizona.

"Anyone that's in sports dreams of moments like this," said Martin, who was doused with water and dancing as soon as he entered the locker room. "It's not something that you start dreaming it the year you win 25 games. You dream it every single day."

The game was as close as expected until the final minute. There were 14 lead changes and 10 ties. The last lead change came on two free throws by Thornwell with 2:24 left that made it 65-63. Fourth-seeded Florida managed just three field goals over the final 3:55.

Thornwell, the regional MVP, followed the deciding free throws with a nice assist to Maik Kotsar for a 4-point lead. It seemed Thornwell, who scored eight straight points for the Gamecocks, was always where he needed to be including making a steal with 40 seconds left that turned into a 73-68 lead.

"Plays needed to be made down the stretch and I stepped up and made plays," Thornwell said.

Teammate Duane Notice knew Thornwell would come through.

"He's capable of doing anything on both sides of the basketball. So it doesn't surprise me," he said. "His senior leadership just kicked in. He don't want us to lose. He don't want our season to end."

"Thornwell was just being Thornwell," Florida coach Mike White said of the SEC player of the year as voted by coaches. "He's one of the best players in the country."

PJ Dozier added 17 points for the Gamecocks, Chris Silva had 13 and Kotsar 12.

Justin Leon had 18 points for the Gators who managed a 40-33 halftime lead on 7-for-12 shooting from 3-point range. But that was it. Florida was 0 for 14 from beyond the arc in the second half, a lot like the 0-for-17 effort the Gators had in their first meeting with South Carolina this season.

"We still got our open looks, but they just, I guess they just went farther than what they were in the first half," Leon said.

South Carolina, which forced Florida into 16 turnovers, finished 23 for 31 from the free throw line, including a 9-for-10 effort from Thornwell.

It was the third straight game the Gamecocks were trailing at the half and went on to win.

"We felt like we was doing the right things. We felt like everything was going good for us, it was just the ball wasn't falling in, and we just needed a couple more stops," Thornwell said. "So going into halftime we always just buckled in and locked in on what we needed to do to win and took it one possession at a time."

BIG PICTURE

South Carolina: This had been South Carolina's deepest run in the NCAA Tournament. ... The Gamecocks beat No. 2 seed Duke and No. 3 Baylor on the way to the Elite Eight. ... Until this tournament the Gamecocks hadn't won an NCAA Tournament game since 1973.

Florida: This was Florida's first NCAA Tournament game against a Southeastern Conference opponent. ... The Gators entered the game with an all-time 44-24 record against the Gamecocks, including 1-2 under White. ... The Gators were trying for their sixth Final Four appearance and that includes the titles in 2006 and 2007.

FAMOUS FANS

Among those in attendance at Madison Square Garden were Hall of Famer Rick Barry, whose son Canyon plays for Florida, Paul McCartney and Darius Rucker.

UP NEXT

South Carolina will meet Gonzaga in the Final Four on Saturday.

Elites meet in South final between Kentucky, North Carolina

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- After avenging a December loss to UCLA on Friday night in the South Regional semifinals at FedEx Forum, Kentucky tries to keep North Carolina from evening the score with a Final Four berth on the line.

Two of the sport's bluebloods meet Sunday in a rematch of perhaps the game of the regular season, a 103-100 Wildcats win on Dec. 17 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Freshman guard Malik Monk wowed the sellout crowd of more than 19,000 with 47 points on 28 shots, canning eight 3-pointers.

Can Monk possibly improve on that epic effort?

"They will play me even tighter," he said, "so (De'Aaron) Fox will have his way. Or anyone else will have their way."

Fox sure had his way in Kentucky's 86-75 elimination of UCLA on Friday night, pumping in a career-high 39 points on just 20 shots as he continually attacked the bucket. Monk perked up after a slow start to add 21 points, setting up a matchup of the region's top two seeds.

North Carolina (30-7) disposed of Butler 92-80 in Friday night's opener, leading by double figures for the final 24 minutes and getting a combined 50 points from Joel Berry and Justin Jackson.

Berry appeared to be over an ankle injury that hampered him in the Tar Heels' previous game against Arkansas, tallying 26 points, while the smooth Jackson worked the Bulldogs over for 24 points, five rebounds and five assists.

Jackson had a great matchup early, going against the 6-3 Kethan Savage, who tried hard but simply wasn't able to keep Jackson from getting whatever shot he wanted.

"I saw they had a smaller defender on me and my teammates were finding me," Jackson said. "They were setting screens and they were just kind of late off those screens. I just kind of felt like I was moving freely, and my teammates were finding me. It was just up to me to step up and knock in the shots."

Jackson also enjoyed a huge game against Kentucky, firing in 34 points on 17 shots from the field. Berry added 23 points and three other teammates hit for double figures as North Carolina shot 53.3 percent from the field while committing only nine turnovers.

But it wasn't nearly enough to outdo Monk and Fox. Lost in Monk's display of shotmaking was Fox's 24 points and 10 assists, which helped the Wildcats notch the most entertaining of their 31 wins this season.

"We didn't play very well on the defensive end and Malik lit us up for 47," Tar Heels coach Roy Williams said of that game.

North Carolina has exerted itself with more consistency without the ball during the NCAA Tournament, holding Arkansas scoreless down the stretch in a 72-65 second-round win and limiting Butler to 43 percent shooting from the floor on Friday night while controlling the boards 38-26.

Kentucky also won in part because of defense Friday night, holding UCLA 15 points below its season average and forcing 13 turnovers from a team that had only nine in its first two NCAA Tournament games.

"The key to that was basically try to get a hand up and don't break down defensively," guard Dominique Hawkins said.

SEC rivals Florida, South Carolina battle in East final

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NEW YORK -- After his team knocked off Baylor in the first game of the East Regional semifinals on Friday, South Carolina coach Frank Martin was extremely complimentary of his Southeastern Conference rivals.

"I want to credit the teams in our league in the SEC for preparing us for the kind of games that you have to play at this time of year," Martin said. "Those coaches, those players that we fought against every single day got these guys prepared to harden, to understand how hard and how disciplined you have to play to have a chance to win at this time of year."

On Sunday, his seventh-seeded Gamecocks (25-10) will face one of them for the third time this season when they meet fourth-seeded Florida (27-8) at Madison Square Garden with a trip to the Final Four on the line. It's the first time since Kentucky and LSU in 1986 that two SEC teams will meet in a regional final.

The Gamecocks advanced with a strong defensive performance in a 70-50 victory over the Bears. The Gators won an 84-83 overtime thriller over Wisconsin on a 3-point buzzer-beater from Chris Chiozza.

Florida and South Carolina split its two regular-season meetings, with the Gamecocks taking a 57-53 decision on Jan. 18 in Columbia and the Gators paying them back with an 81-66 win on Feb. 21 in Gainesville.

South Carolina went 12-6 in the conference. Florida was 14-4.

Many predicted the East Regional final would be a Duke-Villanova classic; in their place will be two schools from a conference mostly known for high-caliber football.

"As a Florida Gator, sitting here as a proud Gator, it is a football conference," admitted Florida coach Mike White. "And it's a basketball conference, and it's a gymnastics conference, and a softball conference, and no one is more aware of that than the Florida Gators. There's excellence throughout the conference in every sport. Men's and women's.

"But SEC basketball, do we have some momentum? Yeah, I think so. I do. And I know that there's been some negativity toward the SEC potentially underachieving over these last couple years. Within our conference, we know the potential and I think that our conference has, is full of good coaches, tremendous talent, a lot of young talent, recruiting classes continue to get stronger and stronger and we have three (Kentucky, South Carolina and Florida) in the Elite 8.

"And who knows, I mean, I think the SEC's going to be better next year, I really do. With the guys that are coming back, and again the young talent that will continue to grow within our league."

South Carolina advances to its first Elite Eight in program history after making it to the Sweet 16 for the first time. Martin's squad is a defensive force. It limited Baylor to just 30 percent shooting, forcing 16 turnovers and holding the Bears to a season-tying-low 22 first-half points.

"We pride ourselves on our defense," said South Carolina's Sindarius Thornwell, the SEC Player of the Year. "We know that's our bread and butter and we know we have a good defense and we go out and guard. We know it's a 40-minute game, and we know teams are going to make runs, but we can't take our foot off the pedal, we got to keep the pressure on and keep guarding."

Oregon beats Kansas 74-60 to punch Final Four ticket

By DAVE SKRETTA
AP Sports Writer

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) Oregon lost one of its best players to an injury just before the NCAA Tournament, had to survive two nail-biters to reach the Midwest Regional finals, and then faced a top-seeded Kansas team that had romped to the brink of the Final Four.

Of course, the Ducks would rise to the occasion.

With swagger and verve and downright prolific shooting, the plucky team that everybody wanted to count out rolled to a 74-60 victory over the Jayhawks on Saturday night, earning the Ducks their first trip to the national semifinals in nearly 80 years.

"You feel so good for so many people," said Ducks coach Dana Altman, who is headed to his first Final Four after 13 trips to the NCAA Tournament. "It's a team effort. You feel good for a lot of people."

Indeed, a whole lot of people had a hand in it.

Tyler Dorsey hit six 3s and poured in 27 points, Dillon Brooks added 17 and Jordan Bell finished with 11 points, 13 rebounds and eight blocks in a virtuoso performance for the Ducks (33-5), who seized the lead with 16 minutes left in the first half and never trailed the rest of the way.

Now, they'll face the winner of Sunday's game between North Carolina and Kentucky in the Final Four in Glendale, Arizona. It will be their first trip since 1939, when the Tall Firs won it all.

Player of the year candidate Frank Mason III had 21 points in his final game for the Jayhawks (31-5), but the offensive fireworks and steady poise that had carried them to a 13th straight Big 12 title fizzled just 40 minutes from campus on a night where very little went right.

Star freshman Josh Jackson was mired in early foul trouble. Sharpshooting guard Devonte Graham never got on track. And the swagger the Jayhawks showed in humiliating Purdue in the Sweet 16 simply evaporated for a team that rolled to the Elite Eight by an average margin of 30 points.

"I'm disappointed for them more than I am for me," said Kansas coach Bill Self, who fell to 2-7 in Elite Eight game, including four defeats as a No. 1 seed. "But the one thing that happened today, and it's hard to admit, the best team did win today."

The Ducks knew everything was stacked against them, but the point was only driven home when their bus passed the Power and Light District in downtown Kansas City on the way to the arena. Thousands of fans in red and blue were rallying hours before the tipoff, turning it into a de facto road game.

But the torrid shooting of Brooks, Ennis and Dorsey quickly deflated the sold-out Sprint Center, and sent a warning shot to the Jayhawks that they were in for a fight.

"You've got to give them credit," Graham said. "They hit some big shots."

Foul trouble sent Jackson to the bench for much of the first half, allowing the Ducks carve to out a comfortable lead. Then Dorsey finished the half with back-to-back 3s, including a deep bank shot at the buzzer, as the Ducks pranced to their locker room relishing in a 44-33 advantage.

"When you play hard throughout the whole game," Brooks said, "you catch some breaks."

The Ducks kept dancing in the second half, beating the Jayhawks at their own game: Getting into transition, passing up good shots for better ones and knocking down 3-pointers.

The Ducks' lead swelled to 55-37 when Brooks drilled another shot from the perimeter, and frustration began to creep into the Kansas bench. It was only compounded every time Jackson or Graham tossed up a shot that clanked hollowly off the iron, the Jayhawks' sense of desperation slowly growing.

Jackson didn't score until midway through the second half, and said later he'd "never been in such a tough position." Graham was 0 for 7 from the field, missing all six of his 3s.

The Jayhawks eventually began to whittle into their deficit, doing most of the work at the free-throw line. But the Ducks kept answering just enough to keep the crowd from giving Kansas anything extra.

When Svi Mykhailiuk scored to make it 64-55, Ennis answered with a driving basket. When Mykhailiuk buried a 3 from the corner to make it 66-60 with 2:49 left, Dorsey answered at the other end with another 3-pointer as the shot-clock expired to give Oregon some breathing room.

A few minutes later, the Ducks were cutting down the nets to end a satisfying trip to Kansas City.

"The seven years we've been at Oregon, we've had great guys to work with," Altman said, "but I also feel good for all the other players, the ex-players, who have built Oregon basketball. Like we said, 1939 is a long drought, but we owe all the ex-players."

BILL'S BUMMING

The Jayhawks lost in the Elite Eight for the second straight year, while Self also lost for the seventh time as a No. 1 seed. That trails only Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and North Carolina's Roy Williams, who have nine losses apiece, for most in NCAA Tournament history.

BIG PICTURE

Oregon wound up shooting 51 percent from the field and hit 11 of 25 from beyond the arc, taking advantage of a porous defense that never matched the standard set by previous Kansas teams.

Kansas may look a whole lot different next season. Mason and big man Landen Lucas will graduate, and Jackson is likely to turn pro, though he said afterward he hasn't thought about it. Graham and Mykhailiuk may also consider declaring for the NBA draft.

UP NEXT

The Ducks are headed to the desert to play for a spot in the national championship.

Gonzaga beats Xavier 83-59 to reach first Final Four

By JOHN MARSHALL
AP Basketball Writer

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) The criticism dogged Gonzaga wherever it went, no matter how much it won.

The Zags run up their record by beating up on teams in a weak conference, then always seemed to come up short as the calendar went deep into March. Few outside of Spokane believed the program Mark Few helped build from scratch belonged in the national powerhouse conversation.

Overrated no more, Gonzaga is finally headed to the Final Four.

The Zags took the pressure of history head on with a performance worthy of their No. 1 seed, rolling to a dominating 83-59 win over Xavier in the West Region final on Saturday that should silence those critics.

"Just an incredible feeling of elation and satisfaction," Few said. "It's been a long, hard journey to get this program here."

Few and the Zags have won the West Coast Conference Tournament 16 times, been regulars in the NCAA Tournament since 1999, reached the Sweet 16 eight times.

The Final Four was the only missing piece to their resume.

The Zags (36-1) claimed their spot in Arizona and history with a superb all-around game, showing off their usual offensive efficiency while flexing the smothering type of defense that had previously been the chink in their armor.

Gonzaga made 12 of 24 shots from 3-point range after struggling the first three NCAA Tournament games. The Zags were No. 1 in defensive efficiency during the regular season and shut down the underdog and 11th-seeded Musketeers (24-14) to become the first WCC team to reach the Final Four in 60 years.

Nigel Williams-Goss scored 23 points while orchestrating Gonzaga's efficient offense after struggling against West Virginia. Johnathan Williams added 19 points and center Przemek Karnowski, who was still recovering from back surgery a year ago, created open perimeter looks with his deft passing out of the post.

Now the Zags are headed to the desert, where they'll play the winner between South Carolina and Florida in next week's Final Four.

"The Final Four doesn't validate or discredit a season. It's not an end-all, be-all," Williams said. "Gonzaga has been a great program and we're just happy to keep carrying the torch."

The Musketeers brought their turn-the-page jar of ashes to the NCAA Tournament, where they burned through a string of upsets to reach their third Elite Eight and first since 2008.

Their bid for the program's first Final Four ran into a buzz saw.

Xavier played well offensively early to hang with the Zags, giving super fan Bill Murray and the rest of their supporters a glimmer of hope. Once Gonzaga got rolling, the Musketeers had no answer.

"They're really good. Sometimes you just lose to a better team," Xavier coach Chris Mack said. "They've proven it all year long."

The Zags struggled to find an offensive rhythm against West Virginia in the regional semifinals- who doesn't? - but had it flowing against Xavier.

After hitting 29 percent of its 3-point shots its first three NCAA games, Gonzaga found the range against Xavier, hitting 8 of 13 from the arc in the first half, mostly against the Musketeers' zone or on kick-outs from Karnowski .

Xavier had a good offensive start, only to hit a dry spell as Gonzaga stretched to lead to 49-39 by halftime.

Halftime did little to slow the Zags, who pushed the lead to 59-42 on 3-pointers by Williams-Goss and Jordan Mathews. Gonzaga kept the machine rolling in the second half, continuing to make shots while its defense prevented the Musketeers from making any kind of run.

"They were just locked in," said Xavier's Trevon Bluiett, who had 10 points. "They were a discipline type of team and we just didn't execute well enough."

BIG PICTURE

Xavier should have a good foundation next season from its Elite Eight, losing only senior guard Malcolm Bernard from its starting lineup.

Gonzaga played like a No. 1 seed and can erase all those overrated calls now that it is finally in the Final Four.

WEST IS WON

Gonzaga is the first WCC team since San Francisco in 1957 to reach the Final Four and first from the West since UCLA did it three straight years from 2006-08.

WILD SEQUENCE

The first half ended with a strange sequence that started with Gonzaga accidentally knocking the ball into its own basket while fighting for a rebound. RaShid Gaston was credited with the basket after the ball bounced off the floor and the backboard into the basket.

Williams-Goss then hit a floater in the lane and J.P. Macura followed with an 80-foot shot that banked in, but was ruled too late after an officials' review.

UP NEXT

Gonzaga faces the winner between South Carolina and Florida in the Final Four next Saturday.

Home fans will boost Kansas in battle with Oregon

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- En route to the Elite Eight, Kansas won its three NCAA Tournament games by an average of 30 points, averaging 96 points in that span.

Slowing down the top-seeded Jayhawks will be the task for third-seeded Oregon in the Midwest Regional final Saturday (8:49 p.m. EDT) at Sprint Center. To make it a little more of a challenge, the Ducks must do it in a hostile environment.

Sprint Center is less than an hour's drive from Lawrence, Kan., the home of the Jayhawks, so the arena will be filled with Kansas fans.

"We look forward to the challenge. It's an opportunity to play," Oregon coach Dana Altman said before Kansas easily dispatched Purdue 98-66. "Kansas is Kansas. Obviously look out there. There is a little green section and a dark blue section. Royal blue filled everything else. It will be a tough ballgame because it's a road game."

Kansas' players know the advantage of having most of the 18,000-plus fans behind them.

"Playing here in K.C. is great," Kansas guard Devonte' Graham said. "The crowd (is) behind us and they give us so much momentum and energy throughout the game. It's just great to be here."

Oregon is a good matchup for Kansas because of similar styles. Kansas relies on four guards in their starting lineup, while Oregon plays small with the loss of 6-10 forward Chris Boucher to injury late in the season.

"(I have a) ton of respect (for Oregon)," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "(They're) unbelievably athletic. They're like us, they're going to play small a lot of the time because they will play Dillon (Brooks) at the 4 like we play Josh and then play the best defender in the Pac-12, Defensive Player of the Year around the middle, kind of like we do Landen (Lucas). So I think it will be two teams that at least match up with each other pretty well."

Kansas is led by national player of the year candidate Frank Mason III. He was averaging 20.8 points per game coming into the NCAA Tournament. He scored 26 points against Purdue. He can drive to the basket, shoot from the outside (he was 4-of-5 from 3-point range against the Boilermakers and shoots 47.2 percent on the season), and he loves to pass, averaging 5.2 assists per game.

Oregon's go-to player is Brooks, who leads the Ducks with 16.4 points per game. He can bring the ball up court, though he plays the power-forward position for the Ducks with the absence of Boucher.

Altman and Oregon are back in the Elite Eight for the second straight year. They lost to Big 12 opponent Oklahoma with a spot in last year's Final Four. If they accomplish their goal Saturday, it will be the Ducks' first Final Four since the very first NCAA Tournament in 1939, when the Ducks won their only title.

"It's just an unbelievable feeling," Altman said. "I owe these guys (his players) so much, for putting us in this position. As a coach, you always dream of playing in the Final Four and winning a national title. I feel really fortunate to have really good players who have put us in that position."

Gonzaga, Xavier both aim for first Final Four

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SAN JOSE, Calif. -- One team will make history in the NCAA Tournament's West Regional final Saturday.

Either top-seed Gonzaga or 11th-seeded Xavier will make its first Final Four.

A one-time Cinderella, Gonzaga (35-1) ranked among the top tier of title contenders all season, as the Bulldogs were No. 1 in the AP poll for nearly two months while winning their first 29 games. They are big, quick, deep and talented.

Arguably a 2017 Cinderella, Xavier (24-13) went through a six-game losing streak after star point guard Edmond Sumner sustained a season-ending knee injury on Jan. 29, with only two of the losses to ranked teams. The Musketeers, however, regained their stride.

Xavier, the lowest seed remaining in the NCAA field, advanced through the West by handling No. 6 seed Maryland, No. 3 seed Florida State and No. 2 seed Arizona.

"Losing Ed was tough because he was a key part to our team," said guard Trevon Bluiett, who scored 25 points and had an assist on the winning basket when Xavier beat Arizona 73-71 Thursday.

"You know, I feel like the 'click' was always there. We just had to learn how to play a full 40 minutes."

Musketeers forward J.P. Macura had 14 points, seven rebounds and five assists against the Wildcats.

"We're all tough guys," Macura said. "We stuck together, and we're not really backing down from anybody. If you have that mentality, you can beat an awful lot of teams."

Gonzaga, whose only loss came to BYU on Feb. 25, got a go-ahead 3-pointer from Jordan Mathews in the final minute to beat West Virginia 61-58 in the West's other Sweet 16 match.

The Bulldogs' 7-foot, 300-pound center, Przemek Karnowski, will be the biggest man on the floor Saturday and will be the toughest matchup for smaller Xavier. Both he and athletic 6-9 forward Johnathan Williams had 13 points against West Virginia.

Point guard Nigel Williams-Goss leads Gonzaga with a 16.7 scoring average, one of four players in double figures. He was held to 10 points on 2-of-10 shooting and committed five turnovers against West Virginia.

"Karnowski is a problem inside," said Arizona coach Sean Miller, whose team lost to Gonzaga 69-62 on Dec. 3. "He can do it rebounding. He can do it in the post. He can do it by passing. And Gonzaga is very underrated defensively."

The Bulldogs held the Mountaineers to 26.7 percent shooting (16 of 60).

Gonzaga, long removed from being a college-basketball upstart, is playing in its 19th consecutive NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs have made only two other appearances in the Elite Eight, losing to eventual champion Connecticut in 1999 and falling to eventual champion Duke in 2015.

"All year we've been banking on our defense, our defense, our defense," Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. "We're 40 minutes away from a Final Four, which was something we set our sights on at the start of the year."

Xavier has made two previous Elite Eight appearances, the last coming in 2008, when Miller was the head coach and Chris Mack was one of his assistants. The Musketeers lost to a UCLA team led by Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook.

South Carolina beats Baylor 70-50 to advance to Elite Eight

By JIM O'CONNELL
AP Basketball Writer

NEW YORK (AP) – Apparently South Carolina is getting the hang of winning NCAA Tournament games.

The Gamecocks, who hadn't won a tournament game since 1973, got their third this year. One more and it's on to the Final Four.

"It's a great win for the program," Gamecocks guard Duane Notice said. "It's a good feeling when we continue to make history and I think once we get a taste of it, we kind of get addicted and want to continue doing it."

Sindarius Thornwell scored 24 points and seventh-seeded South Carolina cruised past third-seeded Baylor 70-50 on Friday night in the East Regional semifinals, the Bears' worst NCAA Tournament loss.

The Gamecocks (25-10) were in control from the middle of the first half on, mixing defenses and hustling all over the Madison Square Garden court to advance to the Elite Eight for the first time.

"We have been real good defensively all year, we were on point definitely today," Gamecocks coach Frank Martin said.

South Carolina will meet Florida, which beat Wisconsin 84-83 in overtime, on Sunday with that trip to the Final Four at stake. It will be an all-Southeastern Conference matchup with the teams having split two regular-season meetings.

DJ Dozier and Chris Silva had 12 points each and Notice added 11 for the Gamecocks.

Johnathan Motley had 18 points, 12 in the second half, for Baylor (27-8), which just couldn't get any offense going. The Bears, who were ranked No. 1 for one week this season, missed 11 of their first 13 shots from the field and it didn't get a whole lot better the entire game. They finished 17 for 56 from the field (30.4 percent), including 3 for 13 from 3-point range.

Thornwell made defending Motley sound easy.

"We stayed aggressive and made his catches hard and we knew that he likes to score in the paint and let his catches be extended outside, that way he got to take more than one dribble to score; he can't just turn and shoot over the top of you," Thornwell said.

Motley said the defense was "extremely tough."

"That's what they game-planned for. And they did a great job of executing their game plan. We couldn't, really couldn't buy a basket."

South Carolina opened the second half on a 12-6 run to get the lead to 49-28. The largest lead was 63-41.

Baylor was able to close to 11 points but that was as tight as the game would get.

The Gamecocks went on a 16-0 run that lasted 7:44 in the first half. They turned a 15-15 tie into a 31-15 lead with 2:50 left in the first half. The Bears went 0 for 10 from the field and committed four turnovers in the run. South Carolina's biggest lead of the half was 37-20 on a 3 by Notice with 29 seconds to play. It was 37-22 at halftime.

The Bears shot just 25 percent from the field in the first half (8 of 32) and committed seven turnovers.

"What they do is a great job of making it difficult and then basketball's such a game of momentum and after you get off to a bad start, sometimes it's hard to get in a rhythm or hard to get in a flow," Baylor coach Scott Drew said.

Martin is glad the rest of the country is getting to see the Gamecocks and their intense defense.

"It's beautiful to us. Which is what matters," he said. "I'm sure there's people don't like it. That's their prerogative."

BIG PICTURE

South Carolina: The Gamecocks came into the NCAA Tournament having lost five of seven. ... The Gamecocks' previous largest margin of victory in the NCAA Tournament was 78-70 over Texas Tech in the first round in 1973.

Baylor: The Bears came into the NCAA Tournament having lost four of seven. ... This is the Bears' fourth straight tournament appearance. They were trying for their third Elite Eight appearance. They lost to Duke in the round of eight in 2010 and to Kentucky in 2012. ... Baylor was 9-1 against the Southeastern Conference since 2012-13. ... Baylor's previous worst loss in the NCAA Tournament was 69-52 to Wisconsin in the Sweet 16 in 2014. ... The 22 points matched Baylor's low for a half this season.

UP NEXT

South Carolina will face Florida in an all-Southeastern Conference Elite Eight game on Sunday.