Luke Maye enters UNC lore with game winner

North Carolina’s Luke Maye went long stretches without playing much this season. But the Tar Heels needed the sophomore to keep the season going.

Maye swished a 19-footer in the last second to give the Heels a 75-73 victory over Kentucky to advance to the Final Four for the second year in a row.

Maye, the South Region’s Most Outstanding Player, hit the game winner after Kentucky had hit three three-pointers in the last 47 seconds to tie the game at 73.

Malik Monk, who lit up the Heels for 47 in the regular season, hit a three from the top of the key with seven seconds left. The Heels got the ball in quickly and Theo Pinson raced down the court. Pinson penetrated the lane and then dropped it back to Maye who banged it in.

“I just wanted to shoot it like I do everyday in practice,” Maye said on the court before the Tar Heels clipped down the nets.

Kennedy Meeks, who had a career-high 17 rebounds, said he wasn’t surprised by Maye’s shot and tournament performance. “He shoots it like that all the time in practice,” he said. “Luke stepped up big time to help us get this win.”

Teammate Justin Jackson, who led the Heels with 19 points, said that Maye’s success shows that “with hard work you can be a great player.”

As against Arkansas earlier in the NCAA Tournament, North Carolina was down in the late stages and went on a run.

Trailing 64-59 with five minutes to go after leading most of the game, Carolina went on a 12-0 run to take a 71-64 lead with less than a minute to go.

Pinson started the scoring with a runner to cut the deficit to 64-61. After a defensive stop, after Kentucky had scored on 12 straight possessions to take the five-point lead, Jackson hit a 12 footer to cut it to 64-63 with 3:46 left.

A Meeks block on the other end led to a Pinson run out. He was fouled and after a TV timeout, he hit two free throws to give Carolina the lead at 65-64 with 3:22 to go.

After yet another defensive stop, Maye was fouled and he hit both ends of a one-and-one situation to put the Heels up 67-64 with 2:41 left.

Kentucky missed a three and Maye got the rebound. The Heels ran the shot clock down and Joel Berry, playing on two bad ankles, drove and scored high off the backboard to put Carolina up 69-64 with 1:45 to go.

A Monk miss led to a Kentucky foul on Pinson, who got the rebound. Pinson hit both ends of a one-and-one to give the Heels a commanding 71-64 lead with 53.5 seconds left.

That’s when Kentucky went on the three-point barrage outscoring the Heels 9-2 to tie it before Maye hit the winner.

With less than a second left, Kentucky threw the ball all the way down the court out of bounds. UNC threw the ball in and the game ended and the celebration began.

Maye scored a career-high 17 after scoring a career-high 16 in the previous game.

The Tar Heels outshot Kentucky, 46 to 42 percent, and outrebounded the Wildcats 44 to 34.

Carolina, now 31-7, plays Oregon Saturday night for the right to play for the national title.

For a box score and more commentary on the game, please click here.

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