Carolina can't overcome Kentucky's threes
DeAndre Liggins (34) of the Kentucky Wildcats makes a jump shot against Kendall Marshall (5) of the North Carolina Tar Heels during the second half. (March 27, 2011) Credit: Getty Images
NEWARK -- In terms of pushing large boulders continuously up steep hills and never quite reaching the summit, North Carolina's 76-69 loss to Kentucky in Sunday's East Regional final fit the bill perfectly.
Carolina spent exactly 37 minutes, 28 seconds of the 40-minute game laboring to get a nose ahead in the climb to the NCAA Final Four, and never quite got there.
At no time after Carolina took a 4-2 advantage did it lead again. Only twice, at 13-13 and briefly at 67-67, with 3:18 to go, was Carolina able to even gain a tie. Each time, Kentucky's three-point gunners figuratively dropped an anvil on Carolina's head.
"Their whole team shoots better than anybody on our team," Carolina coach Roy Williams said. "We worked hard on getting there and getting a hand up and hoping they didn't make some. But it's hard trying to overcome some things that are that big an advantage."
In just the last 13 minutes, Kentucky's lead was cut from 10 to seven, then nine to five, then eight to four, then eight to that 67-67 tie, keeping the crowd of 18,278 in hysterics. But through it all, Carolina was exhausting itself as Kentucky continually came up with the goods.
"It's something we work on all the time," said 7-foot junior Tyler Zeller, whose 21 points led Carolina. "We'll be down six, eight or something like that in practice and we've got to make a comeback. We've worked on it, done it. But you've got to give them credit and Brandon [Knight] credit for making that huge three. We had a lot of momentum at that time."
In the end, Kentucky was 12-for-22 from long range. (Carolina was 3-for-16). And Knight, who was 5-for-11 from behind the arc in scoring a game-high 22 points, delivered the one that hurt the most only 27 seconds after UNC achieved that 67-67 tie.
After Knight's bomb, Carolina had one more push on Zeller's tip-in with 1:55 to go, shrinking the lead to 70-69. But once again, Kentucky -- this time DeAndre Liggins (2-for-4 on threes) -- hit a triple with 37 seconds left after Liggins blocked Kendall Marshall's layup attempt.
"We didn't want our season to end," a glum Marshall said. "We wanted to leave it all on the court. We were hoping if we can just contest [Kentucky's three-pointers], it would be a lot harder shot, but they were hitting today. They're an unselfish team and they look for their shooters."
Once again in this tournament of the dark shirts -- lower-seeded teams always wear their colors -- white-clad Carolina found too big a mountain to climb.
