 "Photo: DTH/Allie Mullin")
CHARLOTTE - With a little more than 10 minutes to play in the second half against Louisville and the score all tied up at 59, the No. 1-seeded Tar Heels set out to prove they are not the same squad that crumbled against Georgetown in the Elite Eight last season.
And after five straight points from a Tyler Hansbrough who refused to see history repeat itself, North Carolina never allowed the No. 3 seeded Cardinals to get back in the game Saturday night.
The Tar Heels came up with some big stops in the closing minutes and couldn't have been better from the charity stripe on the way to an 83-73 victory that is now their ticket to San Antonio.
"They are focused young men," UNC coach Roy Williams said. "So it was something where the kids were able to step up and make plays."
It was a feeling this North Carolina bunch did not want to experience again - getting so close to reaching the Final Four and coming up just short.
But after hearing Williams talk incessantly all week about the team being "tough enough, patient enough and poised enough," his team certainly showed that it took those words to heart.
Point guard Ty Lawson's ability to single-handedly beat the Louisville press was a key aspect of UNC's ability to withstand the Cardinals' second-half run, but the decisive factor for the Tar Heels was that Hansbrough scored 20 of his game-high 28 points in the second half.
On one pivotal possession late in the second half, Hansbrough revealed an unseen wrinkle to his game that will give Kansas defenders one more thing to think about - a pump fake.
Receiving the ball about 18 feet from the basket, Hansbrough looked as though he was about to release another long jumper. But as his Cardinal defender flew through the air, he pulled the ball back down, took a few steps in and connected for two.
"He was so huge for us, and he just stepped up and knocked down some big time shots," sophomore guard Wayne Ellington said of Hansbrough's performance. "He basically put us on his back and carried us."
And with one minute left to play, the fouling game began. UNC was up 75-66, and Lawson nailed two free throws to put the Tar Heels up by 11.
"Free throws are always important in a game," junior Danny Green said. "If you get fouled, you have to make a team pay for fouling you. If you don't knock your free throws down, then they win the possession."
This was exactly how Louisville's game plan worked in the final minute, but it didn't work out in the Cardinals' favor. The Cardinals traded layups for free throws, as UNC went 8-for-8 from the foul line in the final 60 seconds.
"Teams are going to go on runs, and they're going to be up. It's going to happen," said Green, who went 6-for-6 from the line.
"How you react to what happens shows how tough you are mentally, and I think this team has matured."
This maturity has translated into a UNC team that is also a little tougher, a little more patient and a little more poised.
Just as Williams hoped, those three things have catapulted the Tar Heels into the Final Four and will need to be on display if they are going to continue to see success in San Antonio against Kansas.
But North Carolina junior forward Marcus Ginyard is confident that he and his teammates are on the right track.
"I think that this team has done the best job of being tough and playing with poise late in the stretch," he said.
"We always find ourselves in situations where we need to play better, we need to play smarter, we need to play tougher and we always do a great job of digging deep."
Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
