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<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nThe Heels’ lead grew into double digits in the closing minutes of the first half to take a 32-22 lead.
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\u201cThey\u2019re [KU] just laying down in the first half,\u201d said Lukert.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey\u2019re [KU] just setting up for an amazing comeback,\u201d Faber said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe just need a second half, we need to regroup, this isn’t working for us,\u201d Emily Salmans added.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey\u2019re so patient with the ball like they take their time dribble the ball look around,\u201d Stanley said of UNC\u2019s first-half execution.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
North Carolina led Kansas at the halftime break, 40-25.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRebounds and second-chance points, not playing aggressive is just killing KU. Kansas looks very out of sync and rushed,\u201d Carter Jones said. \u201cTo come back they\u2019re going to have to run offense and work through Ochai Agbaji. UNC\u2019s playing really well though, Brady Manek and Armondo Bacot are having good games.\u201d
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\u201cThey\u2019re [KU] usually a better second-half team,\u201d said Ethan Salmans.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey\u2019re [UNC] the ones getting hit and we\u2019re [KU] the ones afraid to get physical. KU is the number 1 seed and was in the final four in 2020 so there\u2019s a lot of pressure on them,\u201d Stanley added.
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\u201cI believe they [KU] can [comeback], I think they will, I have faith,\u201d Lukert said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If Jalen Wilson would\u2019ve made his shots earlier, we would\u2019ve been ahead,\u201d Ethan Salmans said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
KU trailed by as many as 16 points in the first half and by 15 at halftime. A comeback from 16 down would be the largest in championship-game history while coming back from 15 down would be tied for the fourth-largest halftime deficit erased in the title game.
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\u201cI think they\u2019re [UNC] going to play to conserve their lead, then they\u2019ll end up losing,\u201d said Ethan Lang.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWell, we got nothing to lose so let\u2019s see what happens,\u201d Pollreisz said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
KU came out with that same attitude to start the second half. They continued to claw their way back until they were within one point of the Heels. With 12:41 left, the score was 46-45 UNC and the Tar Heels turned the ball over.
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\u201cThat’s a junior high girl’s mistake,\u201d said Emily Salmans.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat was big, we just need to hit one shot and it would spark our offense,\u201d said Lukert.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ryan Stanely said, \u201cGuys this is crazy I was about to go to bed, and now we\u2019re back in it.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWow we could actually pull this off,\u201d said Pollreisz.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With 7:48 in the second half, the game was tied, 57-57.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cExcitement\u2019s up, it\u2019s close again, glad it\u2019s a close game,\u201d Faber said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cKU\u2019s gonna win, mark my words,\u201d Jones said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
KU and UNC continued to teter back and forth for the next 5 minutes of play.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is such an ugly national championship game,\u201d Stanley said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey both just look bad. I wish our final four-game could be like copy and paste,\u201d Lukert added.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
North Carolina took a one-point lead with 1:41 remaining, 69-68. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJacob you might have to move bud, I\u2019m gonna have to stand up, it\u2019s edge of your seat time now,\u201d Jones said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don’t think I can watch this. I’m gonna be sick, I don\u2019t know why, I’m just a fan,\u201d Salmons said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don’t know how I’m going to go to bed after this, like all of this excitement,\u201d Stanley said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UNC\u2019s big man. Armando Bacot went down with an ankle injury with 0:38 remaining.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat’s a terrible ending [for UNC\u2019s Bacot], I don’t want it to end like that,\u201d Stanley said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
KU reclaimed the lead on a David McCormack jump-hook shortly after Bacot went down.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBacot was a big player for them [UNC],\u201d Faber said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo much can happen in 38 seconds,\u201d Lukert said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With 4.6 seconds left, KU had a three-point lead; 72-69. With the ball in their hands, Kansas had made the biggest comeback in NCAA history.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is crazy! Hold on, hold on, everyone hold on. 4.6 seconds is too long,\u201d Stanely said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don’t like how they’re [KU] on their [UNC\u2019s] side. How do you even coach in this scenario? Like what do you even tell them,\u201d Lukert said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOh man, I’m starting to get nervous now,\u201d Salmans said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
KU\u2019s Dajuan Harris stepped out of bounds to give the Tar Heels another shot to tie the game with 4.3 seconds left.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat was a good play if he [Harris] would have just stayed in bounds,\u201d Salmons said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe was out of bounds, no way,\u201d Faber said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis man done goofed,\u201d Stanley said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat was literally the worst-case scenario, the place to make a turnover, on their side,\u201d said Maleigha Schmidt.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As it came down to the last play of the game Emily Salmos said \u201cThey’re talking about Manek, he’s ready to shoot, he’s warming up his hands.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UNC\u2019s Caleb Love threw up the last shot in an attempt to go into overtime.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was like 95% sure that ball was going into the hoop,\u201d said Jones when the ball missed the rim.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Post game thoughts were filled with a lot of excitement, shock, and reflection on the overall quality of the championship game.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo many weird things happened in that game, concussions, out of bounds, broken ankle, puke on court, line fault-multi, and we [KU] were down by 15 at half,\u201d Schmidt said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOfficials were pretty good, don’t think it would have mattered, charge calls a little weird but weird both ways. Made the right calls in the game when it mattered,\u201d Salmons said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never enjoyed basketball games so much. That was a quality game, I\u2019m glad I watched,\u201d Faber said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Watching KU celebrate their title Emily Salmons said \u201cAw look how happy they are. Man, what a game.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI mean I’ve been watching them since I was a little kid and I look forward to basketball season every year and for this to be my first year in Kansas and seeing my first KU game this year and then them winning it all, it is definitely something I will never forget,\u201d Pollreisz said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe atmosphere is so hype! The entire town is bustling,\u201d said Parker Gooden, a student at KU who watched the game from inside Allen Fieldhouse.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BY MADISON SHAPLAND After defeating Villanova on Saturday in the Final Four, the Kansas Jayhawk men\u2019s basketball team moved on to face the North Carolina… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":64488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3394,7349],"tags":[531,11354,217,14541],"class_list":["post-64480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mens-basketball-sports","category-sports","tag-fhsu-students","tag-kansas-jayhawks","tag-ku","tag-madison-shapland"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/KU-watch-1.jpg?fit=625%2C374&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64480"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64490,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64480\/revisions\/64490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/64488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}