April 5, 2008

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SAN ANTONIO (AP) - The Jayhawks earned 25 points and seven rebounds from Brandon Rush to stave off a ferocious comeback by North Carolina for an 84-66 victory in the national semifinals.

Trailing 40-12 late in the first half, Tyler Hansbrough, Wayne Ellington and the Tar Heels made a valiant rally, getting to within five points with nine minutes left, but ran out of steam in their effort to pull off the biggest Final Four comeback ever.

Now, the Jayhawks will play Memphis, an earlier 78-63 winner over UCLA, in Monday's title game.

Kansas moved within a win of its first national championship since 1988, the year before Williams began his storied 15-year tenure in Lawrence.

Hansbrough had 17 points and nine rebounds for North Carolina (36-3) - a typically gutsy effort - but his next move will be to decide whether to come back for his senior season.

Kansas has more pressing things to deal with.

"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 into true desperation mode.

"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 Jayhawks shot 53 percent from the floor and held the nation's second-leading offense to 35 percent. They had nine more rebounds, 10 more assists, six more blocks.

"We played great early," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "I mean, that's as good as we could play."

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, the Tar Heels went a stunning 9:03 without a basket. No team has overcome a deficit bigger than 22 at the Final Four.

Carolina 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 a 3-pointer by Ellington (18 points) with 9:20 left that made it 58-53 and had the Tar Heel fans in a frenzy.

Throughout the rally, Self called time-out after time-out.

Picking a Jayhawks star was as easy as closing your eyes and pointing to a name on the stat sheet.

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.

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 - what coach wouldn't love that?

The list went on, and die-hard KU fans might have deemed it their team's best moment since the 2003 Final Four, when Nick Collison helped dismantle Marquette 94-61 in the semifinals.

Two nights later, the Jayhawks lost to Syracuse in the finals.