The Kansas Jayhawks out-scored the North Carolina Tar Heels, 47-29 in the second half, to overcome a 15-point halftime deficit, and the Jayhawks take the 2022 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship…Final Score:Kansas 72, North Carolina 69
There was no one there to save the Heels on this Monday night, and after a red-hot first half, the Heels went cold after intermission, and Kansas makes the biggest second-half comeback in the NCAA Tournament Championship Game history…
Caleb Love was 4-18 shooting for the Tar Heels in the second stanza, and none of the Heels could find their range, other than Puff Johnson(11 points), who pretty much kept Carolina in the game in the last 20 minutes of the contest….
In the first half, North Carolina dominated Kansas with A)Made Free Throws, B)Second Chance Points, and C)Offensive Rebounds….Then the second half was a totally different story, with the Kansas Jayhawks out-scoring UNC by 18 big points…Remy Martin, McCormack, Wilson, and the five on the court at any time for Kansas, made sure the Tar Heels had work hard to get their shots, and the harder the Heels worked, the more the ball fell away from the rim, and the Jayhawks were grabbing and snaring the rebounds, and finding the hole, and finishing on the offensive end of the floor….
After being down 7-0 early in the Championship Game, North Carolina made a 16-0 run, and that run/spurt helped the Heels grab their 15-point halftime advantage….
The Final Four final score, 72-69, with Kansas the winner, and a last second three-point attempt, on their last possession of the game, fell short for the Heels, as the Caleb Love three missed its mark, as the game clock ran out….The clock read 4.3 seconds remaining, as UNC set up their inbounds pass to try and get the look they wanted on that last shot of the game, and the season, from Love….
North Carolina finishes the season at (29-10), while the National Champion Kansas Jayhawks close out their 2021-2022 campaign, at (34-6) overall….
More on the North Carolina Tar Heels shooting woes…Carolina shot 23-73 from the field for the game, and accounts for 31.5% shooting as a whole…The Heels shot 21.7% from three-point range for 5-23 shooting behind the arc…Armando Bacot was 3-13, Caleb Love 5-24, and RJ Davis went 5-17 from the floor, and that was cold shooting from North Carolina, and in the second half, you have to give a lot of credit to the inspired defense from the Kansas Jayhawks….Wow, what a difference 48 hours can make, as Caleb Love hit one shot in eight attempts from three-point land, and RJ Davis was 0-5 from deep/three-point range..Back on Saturday, Love was the talk of the town, with his key three(s) to help the Heels win over Duke…
The Tar Heels did do a good job at the free throw line like we had mentioned earlier, as North Carolina goes 18-22 at the charity stripe in the Monday night battle….The Heels out-rebounded the Jayhawks by 20, 55-35, with Bacot pulling down 15 rebounds, Brady Manek grabbed 13 carroms, and guard RJ Davis hit the boards for 12 rebounds….Free throw shooting and rebounding were a sure plus for the North Carolina Tar Heels, but Kansas shot 43.9% from the floor to the Heels 31.5%, plus the Jayhawks turned the ball over just 9 times, while North Carolina committed 13 turnovers for the contest….
A three-point Kansas win, after North Carolina took down Duke by four points back on Saturday night, 81-77…Tonight’s 72-69 final was every bit as exciting as the Saturday night game, and the ending/finish was even more interesting than what we saw in the North Carolina-Duke game…
North Carolina with the ball, with 4.3 seconds left tonight, and the Caleb Love shot falls short….Plenty of time, but with that final shot, the college basketball season has come to close….How many of the young men we saw from North Carolina and Duke will be on the way to the NBA??? And will the NBA be able to coax Coach K into coaching the LA Lakers??? That talk will be swirling around the league soon, mark my word…
The final word tonight/early this morning is OVER…The season is over and it is time to cut down the nets, and move outdoors, and start shooting more outside rock….