GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — The Latest on the semifinal games in the Final Four: (all times local):

Two college basketball programs on opposite ends of the country and with much different histories will face off for the national championship on Monday.

North Carolina and Gonzaga pulled out hard-fought wins in the semifinals to set the stage for the title game. North Carolina has five national titles, and Gonzaga is making its first appearance in a championship game.

North Carolina opened as a two-point favorite over the Bulldogs, of Spokane, Washington.

North Carolina is one game away from its sixth college basketball national championship after surviving a late rally in the final seconds against Oregon.

Kennedy Meeks matched his career high with 25 points and grabbed 14 rebounds as North Carolina won 77-76.

Meeks’ final rebound was the most pivotal, coming after a missed free throw in the closing seconds.

North Carolina missed four straight free throws at the end of the game but got offensive rebounds in both cases to emerge victorious.

Dylan Ennis and Tyler Dorsey scored 21 and 18 points for the Ducks. Dillon Brooks had a rough night for Oregon, making 2 of 11 shots and committing five turnovers before fouling out.

North Carolina’s academic scandal was brought up on the CBS broadcast during the second half of the Tar Heels’ national semifinal against Oregon.

Jim Nantz suggested that recruiting has been tough for the Tar Heels because of the scandal, noting the team has an upperclassman-dominated roster. “They’ve had to live with all of this, all the swirling innuendo with what went on there with all the academic fraud allegations,” he said.

North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham told The Associated Press earlier this week that it “would be inappropriate to try to estimate a timeline” as to when this saga might end. The NCAA’s ongoing probe of the Tar Heels is tied to irregularities in an academic department and led to five broad-based charges against the school that include lack of institutional control.

Current UNC players were years away from arriving in Chapel Hill when it began.

The Final Four brought the largest crowd to attend a sporting event at University of Phoenix Stadium.

Organizers say attendance was 77,612. That is dramatically more fans than the building typically holds for Arizona Cardinals football games. Average attendance for Cardinals games is about 64,000. The Cardinals have sold out every game since the building opened in 2006.

The stadium can hold thousands more seats for basketball in what marks the first time the Final Four has been in Arizona.

One half in, and North Carolina’s Joel Berry II is having a quiet night as he plays through two sprained ankles.

Berry hit an early 3-pointer but didn’t make another shot the rest of the half, finishing with five points on 1-for-4 shooting.

It’s unclear how much the injuries are affecting him, though some of that could be Oregon’s defense that had UNC off-balance for about 17 minutes before a late Tar Heels run.

North Carolina’s offense took a long time to get going but finally picked things up, and the Tar Heels lead Oregon 39-36 at halftime in the nightcap of Saturday’s Final Four semifinals.

Kennedy Meeks dominated play inside with 14 points and five rebounds for the Tar Heels.

North Carolina missed 17 of its first 20 shots but finished the half with a 17-6 run. Oregon had an eight-point lead at one point.

North Carolina appeared to lose its shooting touch somewhere between home and Arizona. Oregon had trouble holding onto the ball.

The start of the Tar Heels-Ducks national semifinal game was marred by offensive struggles by both teams.

North Carolina made only 5 of its first 20 shots and Oregon committed eight turnovers in the game’s first 11 minutes.

Theo Pinson briefly went out of the game, adding to North Carolina’s offensive woes.

The national semifinal contest between North Carolina and Oregon is underway, with the winner to face Gonzaga in the championship game.

North Carolina is looking to return to the title game after losing to Villanova on a last-second shot last year. North Carolina has won five national titles, most recently in 2009. Oregon’s only championship was in 1939.

The Gonzaga Bulldogs survived a furious second-half rally by South Carolina to advance to their first national championship game.

South Carolina reeled off 16 straight points to take a 67-65 lead with 7:06 to play. Zach Collins answered with a 3-pointer to put Gonzaga back on top and the Bulldogs held on from there.

Collins, a 7-foot freshman, had an impressive stat line: 14 points, 13 rebounds and six blocks in 23 minutes of play.

Gonzaga advances to Monday night’s title game against the winner of Saturday night’s Oregon-North Carolina agame.

Nigel Williams-Goss scored 23 for the Bulldogs. P.J. Dozier had 17 points for the Gamecocks.

The Gonzaga Bulldogs are headed to the national title game.

Gonzaga weathered a furious second-half rally by South Carolina and held on to beat the Gamecocks 77-73 at the Final Four on Saturday night.

The Bulldogs, who have lost once in 38 games this season, play the winner of the Oregon-North Carolina game for the national championship Monday night.

South Carolina is displaying more of its patented second-half magic in the NCAA tournament.

Down by 14 to Gonzaga, the Gamecocks came roaring back to take the lead with 7:06 remaining. Their run reached 16-0 at that point before Gonzaga ended its scoreless drought.

The Gamecocks scored on six straight possessions. Meanwhile, Gonzaga, so smooth on offense most of the game, went over three minutes without a score.

South Carolina has trailed at half three times in the tournament, and the Gamecocks have outscored the opposition in the second half by 54 points.

The decision by Nigel Williams-Goss to leave Seattle is turning out to be a decisive addition for Gonzaga in its bid for the school’s first national title.

The guard from Happy Valley, Oregon, played his first two seasons for Lorenzo Romar at Washington but left after the 2014-15 season.

He heated up in the second half, pushing Gonzaga’s lead to 14 points with a 3-point play with about 10 minutes to play. He reached 23 points with the 3-point play. That despite turning his ankle a few minutes earlier.

Williams-Goss is averaging about 17 points a game this year.

South Carolina’s Sindarius Thornwell missed a day of practice this week after coming down with a fever and headache. And the SEC player of the year’s coach acknowledged he wasn’t at full strength in the first half against Gonzaga.

Frank Martin said the Gamecocks need to find a way to help out Thornwell. “He obviously doesn’t have a lot of energy and bounce in his game right now,” Martin said.

Complicating matters for the senior guard is the fact that the Zags guarded him with the 6-foot-9 Johnathan Williams. Long arms and a 4-inch height advantage have helped make things tough for Thornwell.

Thornwell had five points in the first half after averaging 25.8 points through the first four games of the tournament.

North Carolina will have starting point guard Joel Berry II for Saturday’s semifinal against Oregon.

Berry was included on the pregame list of starters. There had been some question about his status this week due to a pair of sprained ankles suffered during the NCAA Tournament, the second coming during the Elite Eight win against Kentucky. The junior had sounded confident about his chances in pregame interviews and pronounced himself “85 percent” on Friday.

The question now is whether — or how much — the injuries affect his play against the Ducks.

Gonzaga scored the final seven points of the first half to build a 45-36 lead over South Carolina in the Final Four.

The Bulldogs came close to going into halftime with a double-digit lead and on a 10-0 run, but Silas Melson’s 3-pointer at the buzzer was waved off.

Nigel Williams-Goss had 12 points to lead Gonzaga, whose surge came without their massive center.

Przemek Karnowski — 7-foot-1 and 300 pounds — took a hand to the face and went down hard under the Gonzaga basket. He stayed down for several minutes before making to the bench and going to the locker room.

South Carolina’s Sindarius Thornwell, the SEC player of the year, had just five points on 1-for-5 shooting.

Gonzaga suffered a setback late in the first half against South Carolina when big man Przemek Karnowski took a hand to the face and was taken to the locker room to be checked out.

Karnowski was led off the court by trainers after getting hit by South Carolina Chris Silva. He is expected to return.

South Carolina coach Frank Martin walked out on to the court to check on Karnowski. Martin bent over and said, “Are you all right?” An Gonzaga athletic trainer then attended to Karnowski.

The 7-foot-1 center from Poland had six points and four rebounds when he left.

Sindarius Thornwell has been red hot for South Carolina in the NCAA tournament. Not so much in the first half against Gonzaga.

The SEC player of the year was scoreless through the first 12 minutes of the game. And his backcourt mate Rakym Felder drew the wrath of South Carolina coach Frank Martin, who came onto the court midway through the first half to give a piece of his mind to the freshman guard.

Thornwell averaged 25.8 points through the first four games of the tournament.

South Carolina is taking a rare approach against Gonzaga by not double teaming Przemek Karnowski.

Previous teams in the NCAA Tournament have sent double teams at the Polish big man and he picked them apart with his deft passing. The Zags made 12 of 24 from 3-point in last week’s win over Xavier, many of those coming on kick-outs by Karnowski.

South Carolina has no one who can match the size of the 7-foot-1, 300-pound center, but the Gamecocks have held their ground so far.

The official who received death threats from Kentucky fans after the Elite Eight is the crew chief for the Final Four game between South Carolina and Gonzaga.

John Higgins worked last weekend’s game between North Carolina and Kentucky, which the Tar Heels won 75-73. Kentucky coach John Calipari began his post-game news conference talking about fouls and Kentucky fans began harassing Higgins, who runs a roofing company in Nebraska.

The Sarpy County Sheriff’s office in Nebraska said Higgins’ roofing company received about 3,000 harassing emails and an unknown number of phone calls, some including death threats. The Facebook page for Higgins’ company also was inundated with negative comments.

Gonzaga and South Carolina, both in their first Final Four, tipped off as fans poured in to cavernous University of Phoenix Stadium. Gonzaga brought an especially vocal fan contingent to cheer on the basketball-crazy school from Spokane, Washington.

The teams emerged from clouds of artificial smoke to take the court for final pre-game warmups.

The national anthem was performed by female athletes from each of the schools in the Final Four.

The game is being played in a retractable roof stadium, but the roof will be closed for the Final Four matchups.

For more AP college basketball coverage: http://collegebasketball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25 </s> The Final Four is set. And in an unusual bit of geography, it'll be schools from neighboring states out west (Oregon, Gonzaga) against schools from neighboring states in the east (North Carolina, South Carolina).

The national semifinals in Phoenix will feature No. 1 seeds in the Bulldogs and Tar Heels, a No. 3 seed in the Ducks and the surprising 7-seed Gamecocks.

The first game Saturday will be South Carolina-Gonzaga, tipping off at 6:09 p.m. EDT. Oregon-North Carolina will follow roughly 40 minutes after the completion of that game.

For the Tar Heels, it's a record 20th trip to the Final Four. Meanwhile, it's the first Final Four trip for Gonzaga coach Mark Few, Oregon coach Dana Altman and South Carolina coach Frank Martin.

Maye hits late jumper to lift North Carolina to Final Four

Luke Maye hit a jumper with 0.3 seconds left, and top-seeded North Carolina held off Kentucky 75-73 to earn the Tar Heels' second straight trip to the Final Four and 20th all-time in Sunday's showdown of college basketball's elite in the South Regional.

 

 The Tar Heels (31-7) will play Midwest champ Oregon on Saturday in Phoenix in the national semifinal.

 

 North Carolina took control with a 12-0 run within the final 5 minutes. Kentucky's freshmen De'Aaron Fox and Malik Monk hit three quick 3s, the last two by Monk and his second with 7.2 seconds left tied it up at 73.

 

 Theo Pinson brought the ball down, passed back to Maye. The sophomore from Huntersville, North Carolina, knocked it down for the win with his feet on the 3-point line.

 

 The Wildcats had one last chance, but Derek Willis' inbound pass went out of bounds on the far end.

 

 Kentucky (32-6) will miss out on the Final Four for the second straight year.

Sindarius Thornwell scored 26 points and South Carolina earned its first trip to the Final Four with a 77-70 victory over Florida on Sunday.

 

 The seventh-seeded Gamecocks (26-10) used their trademark swarming defense and some solid free throw shooting to beat their fellow Southeastern Conference Gators (27-9) in the East Regional final at Madison Square Garden.

 

 South Carolina will face Gonzaga, the No. 1 seed from the West Regional, in the Final Four on Saturday at Glendale, Arizona.

 

 The game was as close as expected until the final minute. There were 14 lead changes and 10 ties. The last lead change came on two free throws by Thornwell with 2:24 left that made it 65-63. Florida managed just three field goals over the final 3:55.

Gonzaga beats Xavier 83-59 to reach first Final Four

Nigel Williams-Goss scored 23 points while orchestrating Gonzaga's efficient offense, and the Zags finally shook their overrated tag by routing Xavier 83-59 on Saturday to reach the Final Four for the first time.

 

 Gonzaga (36-1) has been dogged by criticism through the years despite winning consistently, in part for playing in a weak conference but also for never making the Final Four.

 

 On the cusp of history, the Zags took it head on with a superb all-around game to give coach Mark Few the one missing piece of his resume.

 

 Gonzaga found the range from the perimeter after struggling the first three NCAA games, making 12 of 24 from 3-point range. The defense, a soft spot in the past, shut down the underdog and 11th-seeded Musketeers (24-14) to win the West Region.

 

 The Zags will face South Carolina in next week's Final Four in Arizona.

Oregon is in the Final Four.

 

 Tyler Dorsey scored 27 points and Jordan Bell was two blocks away from a triple-double as Oregon upset No. 1 seed Kansas 74-60 in the Midwest Regional final.

 

 Joining Oregon in the Final Four is Gonzaga, which trounced Xavier 83-59 in the West Regional championship.

 

 Two more Final Four invitations go out Sunday. North Carolina takes on Kentucky in the South Region, and South Carolina meets Florida in an all-Southeastern Conference East Region final.

Oregon watched an 18-point lead get whittled to 66-57, but time was on the Ducks' side as they held on against Kansas to advance to the Final Four in Arizona. They will face off with the North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday. </s> (AP) – The Latest on the semifinal games in the Final Four: (all times local):

Two college basketball programs on opposite ends of the country and with much different histories will face off for the national championship on Monday.

North Carolina and Gonzaga pulled out hard-fought wins in the semifinals to set the stage for the title game. North Carolina has five national titles, and Gonzaga is making its first appearance in a championship game.

North Carolina opened as a two-point favorite over the Bulldogs, of Spokane, Washington.

North Carolina is one game away from its sixth college basketball national championship after surviving a late rally in the final seconds against Oregon.

Kennedy Meeks matched his career high with 25 points and grabbed 14 rebounds as North Carolina won 77-76.

Meeks’ final rebound was the most pivotal, coming after a missed free throw in the closing seconds.

North Carolina missed four straight free throws at the end of the game but got offensive rebounds in both cases to emerge victorious.

Dylan Ennis and Tyler Dorsey scored 21 and 18 points for the Ducks. Dillon Brooks had a rough night for Oregon, making 2 of 11 shots and committing five turnovers before fouling out.

North Carolina’s academic scandal was brought up on the CBS broadcast during the second half of the Tar Heels’ national semifinal against Oregon.

Jim Nantz suggested that recruiting has been tough for the Tar Heels because of the scandal, noting the team has an upperclassman-dominated roster. “They’ve had to live with all of this, all the swirling innuendo with what went on there with all the academic fraud allegations,” he said.

North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham told The Associated Press earlier this week that it “would be inappropriate to try to estimate a timeline” as to when this saga might end. The NCAA’s ongoing probe of the Tar Heels is tied to irregularities in an academic department and led to five broad-based charges against the school that include lack of institutional control.

Current UNC players were years away from arriving in Chapel Hill when it began.

The Final Four brought the largest crowd to attend a sporting event at University of Phoenix Stadium.

Organizers say attendance was 77,612. That is dramatically more fans than the building typically holds for Arizona Cardinals football games. Average attendance for Cardinals games is about 64,000. The Cardinals have sold out every game since the building opened in 2006.

The stadium can hold thousands more seats for basketball in what marks the first time the Final Four has been in Arizona.

One half in, and North Carolina’s Joel Berry II is having a quiet night as he plays through two sprained ankles.

Berry hit an early 3-pointer but didn’t make another shot the rest of the half, finishing with five points on 1-for-4 shooting.

It’s unclear how much the injuries are affecting him, though some of that could be Oregon’s defense that had UNC off-balance for about 17 minutes before a late Tar Heels run.

North Carolina’s offense took a long time to get going but finally picked things up, and the Tar Heels lead Oregon 39-36 at halftime in the nightcap of Saturday’s Final Four semifinals.

Kennedy Meeks dominated play inside with 14 points and five rebounds for the Tar Heels.

North Carolina missed 17 of its first 20 shots but finished the half with a 17-6 run. Oregon had an eight-point lead at one point.

North Carolina appeared to lose its shooting touch somewhere between home and Arizona. Oregon had trouble holding onto the ball.

The start of the Tar Heels-Ducks national semifinal game was marred by offensive struggles by both teams.

North Carolina made only 5 of its first 20 shots and Oregon committed eight turnovers in the game’s first 11 minutes.

Theo Pinson briefly went out of the game, adding to North Carolina’s offensive woes.

The national semifinal contest between North Carolina and Oregon is underway, with the winner to face Gonzaga in the championship game.

North Carolina is looking to return to the title game after losing to Villanova on a last-second shot last year. North Carolina has won five national titles, most recently in 2009. Oregon’s only championship was in 1939.

The Gonzaga Bulldogs survived a furious second-half rally by South Carolina to advance to their first national championship game.

South Carolina reeled off 16 straight points to take a 67-65 lead with 7:06 to play. Zach Collins answered with a 3-pointer to put Gonzaga back on top and the Bulldogs held on from there.

Collins, a 7-foot freshman, had an impressive stat line: 14 points, 13 rebounds and six blocks in 23 minutes of play.

Gonzaga advances to Monday night’s title game against the winner of Saturday night’s Oregon-North Carolina agame.

Nigel Williams-Goss scored 23 for the Bulldogs. P.J. Dozier had 17 points for the Gamecocks.

The Gonzaga Bulldogs are headed to the national title game.

Gonzaga weathered a furious second-half rally by South Carolina and held on to beat the Gamecocks 77-73 at the Final Four on Saturday night.

The Bulldogs, who have lost once in 38 games this season, play the winner of the Oregon-North Carolina game for the national championship Monday night.

South Carolina is displaying more of its patented second-half magic in the NCAA tournament.

Down by 14 to Gonzaga, the Gamecocks came roaring back to take the lead with 7:06 remaining. Their run reached 16-0 at that point before Gonzaga ended its scoreless drought.

The Gamecocks scored on six straight possessions. Meanwhile, Gonzaga, so smooth on offense most of the game, went over three minutes without a score.

South Carolina has trailed at half three times in the tournament, and the Gamecocks have outscored the opposition in the second half by 54 points.

The decision by Nigel Williams-Goss to leave Seattle is turning out to be a decisive addition for Gonzaga in its bid for the school’s first national title.

The guard from Happy Valley, Oregon, played his first two seasons for Lorenzo Romar at Washington but left after the 2014-15 season.

He heated up in the second half, pushing Gonzaga’s lead to 14 points with a 3-point play with about 10 minutes to play. He reached 23 points with the 3-point play. That despite turning his ankle a few minutes earlier.

Williams-Goss is averaging about 17 points a game this year.

South Carolina’s Sindarius Thornwell missed a day of practice this week after coming down with a fever and headache. And the SEC player of the year’s coach acknowledged he wasn’t at full strength in the first half against Gonzaga.

Frank Martin said the Gamecocks need to find a way to help out Thornwell. “He obviously doesn’t have a lot of energy and bounce in his game right now,” Martin said.

Complicating matters for the senior guard is the fact that the Zags guarded him with the 6-foot-9 Johnathan Williams. Long arms and a 4-inch height advantage have helped make things tough for Thornwell.

Thornwell had five points in the first half after averaging 25.8 points through the first four games of the tournament.

North Carolina will have starting point guard Joel Berry II for Saturday’s semifinal against Oregon.

Berry was included on the pregame list of starters. There had been some question about his status this week due to a pair of sprained ankles suffered during the NCAA Tournament, the second coming during the Elite Eight win against Kentucky. The junior had sounded confident about his chances in pregame interviews and pronounced himself “85 percent” on Friday.

The question now is whether – or how much – the injuries affect his play against the Ducks.

Gonzaga scored the final seven points of the first half to build a 45-36 lead over South Carolina in the Final Four.

The Bulldogs came close to going into halftime with a double-digit lead and on a 10-0 run, but Silas Melson’s 3-pointer at the buzzer was waved off.

Nigel Williams-Goss had 12 points to lead Gonzaga, whose surge came without their massive center.

Przemek Karnowski – 7-foot-1 and 300 pounds – took a hand to the face and went down hard under the Gonzaga basket. He stayed down for several minutes before making to the bench and going to the locker room.

South Carolina’s Sindarius Thornwell, the SEC player of the year, had just five points on 1-for-5 shooting.

Gonzaga suffered a setback late in the first half against South Carolina when big man Przemek Karnowski took a hand to the face and was taken to the locker room to be checked out.

Karnowski was led off the court by trainers after getting hit by South Carolina Chris Silva. He is expected to return.

South Carolina coach Frank Martin walked out on to the court to check on Karnowski. Martin bent over and said, “Are you all right?” An Gonzaga athletic trainer then attended to Karnowski.

The 7-foot-1 center from Poland had six points and four rebounds when he left.

Sindarius Thornwell has been red hot for South Carolina in the NCAA tournament. Not so much in the first half against Gonzaga.

The SEC player of the year was scoreless through the first 12 minutes of the game. And his backcourt mate Rakym Felder drew the wrath of South Carolina coach Frank Martin, who came onto the court midway through the first half to give a piece of his mind to the freshman guard.

Thornwell averaged 25.8 points through the first four games of the tournament.

South Carolina is taking a rare approach against Gonzaga by not double teaming Przemek Karnowski.

Previous teams in the NCAA Tournament have sent double teams at the Polish big man and he picked them apart with his deft passing. The Zags made 12 of 24 from 3-point in last week’s win over Xavier, many of those coming on kick-outs by Karnowski.

South Carolina has no one who can match the size of the 7-foot-1, 300-pound center, but the Gamecocks have held their ground so far.

The official who received death threats from Kentucky fans after the Elite Eight is the crew chief for the Final Four game between South Carolina and Gonzaga.

John Higgins worked last weekend’s game between North Carolina and Kentucky, which the Tar Heels won 75-73. Kentucky coach John Calipari began his post-game news conference talking about fouls and Kentucky fans began harassing Higgins, who runs a roofing company in Nebraska.

The Sarpy County Sheriff’s office in Nebraska said Higgins’ roofing company received about 3,000 harassing emails and an unknown number of phone calls, some including death threats. The Facebook page for Higgins’ company also was inundated with negative comments.

Gonzaga and South Carolina, both in their first Final Four, tipped off as fans poured in to cavernous University of Phoenix Stadium. Gonzaga brought an especially vocal fan contingent to cheer on the basketball-crazy school from Spokane, Washington.

The teams emerged from clouds of artificial smoke to take the court for final pre-game warmups.

The national anthem was performed by female athletes from each of the schools in the Final Four.

The game is being played in a retractable roof stadium, but the roof will be closed for the Final Four matchups. </s> GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — North Carolina missed the shots. No surprise there.

Kennedy Meeks saved the game. No surprise there, either.

Meeks, the only Tar Heel who could shoot straight Saturday night, grabbed the game-saving offensive rebound in a 77-76 victory over Oregon after the ice-cold Tar Heels missed their fourth straight free throw down the stretch.

All part of a career night for the North Carolina senior, who was on the bench last year when Villanova devastatingly ended the Tar Heels’ chance at a title with a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

In this one, Meeks finished 11 for 13 for 25 points and 14 rebounds, none more important than the last one.

The rest of his team: 14 for 55 from the floor. Justin Jackson was one of the few to break through. He had 22 points on 6-for-13 shooting.

“If it wasn’t for Kennedy Meeks, we wouldn’t have been in the basketball game,” Carolina coach Roy Williams said.

In some ways, losing this one might have felt every bit as bad as the Villanova loss last year for this, a team on a mission with only one acceptable destination.

Mostly on grit, rebounding and Meeks, North Carolina (33-6) led this game the entire second half and appeared poised, time after time, for a knockout of the never-say-die Ducks (32-7).

Never happened. And after Keith Smith’s layup pulled Oregon within one with 7 seconds left, it looked like it would come down to free throws.

It did, and it wasn’t pretty.

First, Meeks got fouled, stepped to the line and calmly bricked two. But Theo Pinson got inside and batted the ball back out to Joel Berry II, who got fouled with 4 seconds left.

Berry missed both, too. But Meeks outmuscled Jordan Bell for that final rebound, threw it outside, and this ugly affair was over.

“My main focus was, if Joel missed the second free throw, to hit the offensive glass hard,” Meeks said. </s> GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Gonzaga and North Carolina have turned their attention toward Monday’s national championship game.

The teams are holding news conferences and a closed practice at University of Phoenix Stadium on Sunday afternoon after both earned tough wins in the national semifinals the night before.

The Zags beat South Carolina 77-73 in the first game. Then the Tar Heels beat Oregon 77-76 in the nightcap.

Gonzaga (37-1) is in the Final Four for the first time, while North Carolina (32-7) is in the Final Four for a record 20th time. That includes last year’s run to the national championship game, where the Tar Heels lost to Villanova on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer. </s> MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Roy Williams went all "Gone With the Wind" when a player asked about his North Carolina Tar Heels making the last shot Sunday to edge Kentucky to the Final Four.

And the coincidence that the Tar Heels have been on the other end of similar shots recently, like in the 2016 national championship and a wild December game against the Wildcats.

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a ...," Williams said with a smile, quoting Clark Gable's famed line as Rhett Butler. "I didn't care what he was talking about."

Luke Maye hit a jumper with 0.3 seconds left and top-seeded North Carolina held off Kentucky 75-73 to earn the Tar Heels' second straight trip to the Final Four, winning a showdown of college basketball's elite in the South Regional.

The national semifinal will be the 20th for North Carolina, where the Tar Heels (31-7) will play Midwest champ Oregon on Saturday in Glendale, Arizona.

North Carolina took control with 12 straight points over the final 5 minutes, a run similar to what it used a week ago to beat Arkansas. The Tar Heels finished this game with a 16-9 run. Kentucky's freshmen De'Aaron Fox hit a 3 and Malik Monk quickly added two more, one with 7.2 seconds left and defenders in his face to tie the game at 73.

"I probably should have called time out," Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "It entered my mind, but they got that son of a B in so quick, I couldn't get to anybody to do it. I needed to stop that right there."

Theo Pinson drove enough toward the basket to pick off Maye's defender, then passed back to Maye. The sophomore from Huntersville, North Carolina, knocked it down for the win with his feet on the 3-point line.

"I just kind of stepped back, and he gave me the ball and I just shot it, and luckily it went in," Maye said. "It was a great feeling."

Maye finished with a career-high 17 points off the bench for North Carolina. Justin Jackson scored 19 points, and Joel Berry II added 11 on a sprained left ankle.

The Wildcats had one last chance, but Derek Willis' inbounds pass went out of bounds on the far end.

Kentucky (32-6) will miss out on the Final Four for the second straight year. Willis and sophomore Isaac Humphries left the court with towels over their heads, and Fox was the last to leave.

The Wildcats had hoped their talented freshmen would carry them. Bam Adebayo and Fox each had 13 points, and Monk, the Southeastern Conference player of the year, finished with 12. Fox and Adebayo wept side by side in the locker room.

"That shot is just playing back and forth in my head," Fox said. "It's going to be difficult to get over."

Never before had the NCAA Tournament pitted powerhouse programs that have so dominated March. This South final featured Kentucky with the most tournament wins all-time with 124 and North Carolina just behind with 120 (now 121).

This was just the fourth time these blue bloods have met in a regional final. The result was much the same as the others, with North Carolina now 3-1 against Kentucky as the Tar Heels avenged a 103-100 loss on Dec. 17 in Las Vegas.

Kentucky led for less than 4 minutes in a game North Carolina had a big edge on the boards (44-34) and inside, where the Tar Heels outscored the Wildcats 34-26.

Officials didn't help the flow of this game calling fouls left and right, though Kentucky took the brunt with its star trio of freshmen all picking up two fouls each in the half. Fox played only 8 minutes of the first half after picking up his second foul with 12:23 left. Adebayo easily was the most frustrated as he missed all five shots in the half with Kennedy Meeks swatting away one of his dunk attempts.

North Carolina led by as much as 9 a couple times before both teams went into shooting slumps. The Tar Heels led 38-33 at halftime.

BIG PICTURE

Kentucky: Nobody has played in more Elite Eights than the Wildcats with this their 33rd overall and sixth under Calipari. Kentucky now is 4-2 with Calipari in regional finals. Fox and Monk combined for 71 points in the December win over North Carolina led by Monk's 47. This time, they combined for 25.

North Carolina: Memphis and the South Regional have been very good to the Tar Heels. This is the second straight time the Tar Heels have been the region's top seed and advanced to the Final Four through Memphis, and now they can only hope to replicate their success of 2009 when they won the program's fifth national title. Williams improved to 9-4 in regional finals overall and 5-3 at North Carolina.

BERRY'S ANKLES

Williams said Berry aggravated the right ankle he sprained in the opening weekend of the tournament in practice Saturday. Berry then rolled his left ankle in the opening 5 minutes. The junior guard played 33 minutes.

UP NEXT

North Carolina plays Oregon in the national semifinal. Kentucky prepares for another batch of freshmen heading to the NBA.

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For more AP college basketball coverage: http://collegebasketball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25 .

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This story has been corrected to reflect that the "Gone With the Wind" quote referenced by North Carolina coach Roy Williams was spoken by the character Rhett Butler, not Scarlett O'Hara, and also to show that Kentucky is 4-2 in regional finals under John Calipari. </s> GLENDALE, Ariz. -- North Carolina missed the shots. No surprise there.

Kennedy Meeks saved the game. No surprise there, either.

Meeks, the only Tar Heel who could shoot straight Saturday night, muscled away the game-saving offensive rebound in a 77-76 victory over Oregon after ice-cold Carolina missed its fourth straight free throw down the stretch.

It was all part of a career night for the North Carolina senior, who was on the bench in last year's championship game when Villanova devastatingly ended the Tar Heels' chance at a title with a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

In this one, Meeks was front and center. He finished 11-for-13 to match his career high with 25 points, and he had 14 rebounds, eight of which came on the offensive glass and none of which was more important than the last. It secured a Monday night date with Gonzaga in the title game, in which the Tar Heels (32-7) will go for the program's sixth title.

"If it wasn't for Kennedy Meeks, we wouldn't have been in the basketball game," Carolina coach Roy Williams said.

Meeks had plenty to mop up for. The rest of his team shot a brick-a-minute 14-for-55 from the floor (25 percent).

Justin Jackson was one of the few to break through. He had 22 points on 6-for-13 shooting, including a five-minute stretch with three 3-pointers and two free throws that helped the Heels to a double-digit lead and put them on the verge of a runaway midway through the second half.

Given the lead and Oregon's own awful shooting (37 percent), losing this one might have felt every bit as bad as the Villanova loss last year. This is, after all, a team on a mission with only one acceptable destination.

"I just didn't want to lose another game off a winning shot," said Joel Berry II, who missed the free throw that Meeks tore away from Jordan Bell to ice the game. "I wish we would have closed it out."

That didn't quite happen. After Keith Smith's layup pulled Oregon within 77-76 with seven seconds left (should Oregon have gone for a game-tying 3? Maybe so), it looked like it would come down to free throws.

It did, and it wasn't pretty.

First, Meeks got fouled, stepped to the line and rimmed out two. Theo Pinson got inside and batted the ball back out to Berry, who then got fouled with four seconds left and took his turn at the line.

Berry missed both too. But Meeks got inside of Bell for that final rebound and threw it outside to Pinson, who dribbled out the clock to end this ugly affair.

"My main focus was -- if Joel missed the second free throw -- to hit the offensive glass hard," Meeks said.

Bell finished with 13 points and 16 rebounds but needed No. 17 to give the Ducks a last shot.

"Jordan felt terrible," Oregon coach Dana Altman said. "But I told him, 'Buddy, you got 16 rebounds. We wouldn't have been in this position if it hadn't been for you.'"

That it came down to Carolina's winning on the boards was no big surprise. This was the best rebounding team in the country this season, grabbing an average of 13 more boards than their opponents over the course of the season.

Against the Ducks, the rebounding battle was even (43 each), though North Carolina got five more on the offensive glass, which resulted in 19 second-chance points, 10 more shots and, eventually, the win.

"I think coach, definitely, when we're gone, he's going to tell that story," said Pinson, who finished with eight points and eight boards. "That just shows how big offensive rebounding is. Boxing out at the end of the game. I'm sure [Bell] wished he'd boxed out right there."

ANKLE TROUBLE: Berry played, as promised, but his shot was troubled by the injured ankles that limited him in practice all week. He was 2-for-14 from the floor and 5-for-9 from the line and finished with 11 points.

MR. MARCH: Tyler Dorsey had been lighting it up through the tournament for Oregon, shooting 65 percent from 3, but the Tar Heels got in his face early, and he never got on track. His 21 points came on 11 shots from the field, and he went 3-for-7 from behind the arc. Oregon shot 3-for-18 from 3 in the second half.

BROOKS STRUGGLES: Dillon Brooks has been the leader for Oregon all season, but he struggled, finishing with 10 points on 2-for-11 shooting before fouling out.

GOOD COMPANY: According to ESPN Stats & Info, Meeks joins Larry Bird, Ed O'Bannon, Carmelo Anthony and Danny Manning as the only players in the past 40 years to reach 25 points and 14 rebounds in the Final Four.

NEXT UP: Carolina vs. Gonzaga in the title game on Monday. The Ducks' season is over after they fell a game short of returning to the title game for the first time since 1939, the year of the first NCAA Tournament. </s> GLENDALE, Ariz. — Gonzaga and North Carolina have turned their attention toward Monday’s national championship game.

The teams are holding news conferences and a closed practice at University of Phoenix Stadium on Sunday afternoon after both earned tough wins in the national semifinals the night before.

The Zags beat South Carolina 77-73 in the first game. Then the Tar Heels beat Oregon 77-76 in the nightcap.

Gonzaga (37-1) is in the Final Four for the first time, while North Carolina (32-7) is in the Final Four for a record 20th time. That includes last year’s run to the national championship game, where the Tar Heels lost to Villanova on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer. </s> If your bracket is in shambles, you can blame these teams.

If your bracket is in shambles, you can blame these teams.

If your bracket is in shambles, you can blame these teams.

If your bracket is in shambles, you can blame these teams.

The champs are here! After defeating SEC rivals Mississippi State 67-55 in Dallas, the women Gamecocks basketball team returned home to Columbia in stormy weather.

The champs are here! After defeating SEC rivals Mississippi State 67-55 in Dallas, the women Gamecocks basketball team returned home to Columbia in stormy weather.

South Carolina forward A'ja Wilson (22) holds the trophy as she and teammates celebrate their win over Mississippi State in the final of NCAA women's Final Four college basketball tournament, Sunday, April 2, 2017, in Dallas. (Source: AP Photo/Eric Gay)

South Carolina forward A'ja Wilson (22) holds the trophy as she and teammates celebrate their win over Mississippi State in the final of NCAA women's Final Four college basketball tournament, Sunday, April 2, 2017, in Dallas. (Source: AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Gonzaga's Johnathan Williams (3) reacts during the first half in the finals of the Final Four NCAA college basketball tournament against North Carolina, Monday, April 3, 2017, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

North Carolina's Theo Pinson (1) dunks during the first half in the finals of the Final Four NCAA college basketball tournament against Gonzaga, Monday, April 3, 2017, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)

GLENDALE, AZ (RNN) - North Carolina has won the 2017 NCAA basketball championship with a 71-65 victory over the Gonzaga Bulldogs.

Joel Berry II lead the game in scoring with 22 points, he played and gave heroic efforts through injuries to both ankles during the tournament.

Nigel Williams-Goss finished with 15 points, and a strong second half.

Locked in a defensive struggle, Gonzaga and North Carolina battled in a game full of poor shooting and a load of foul calls, with neither team shooting over 36 percent from the field.

North Carolina shot a dreadful percentage from three-point line, converting on less than 15 percent of their shots from behind the arc.

Gonzaga’s Przemek Karnowski had a tough game as he struggled with foul trouble and horrid shooting. He finished with only 9 points and shot 13 percent from the field, with most of his missed shots coming right at the rim.

Gonzaga held a slim 35-32 lead over North Carolina at the end of the first half.

North Carolina gave coach Roy Williams his third national championship after titles in 2005 and 2009 and a loss at the buzzer in last year’s championship game against Villanova. This will mark the 100th NCAA tournament game for Williams.

UNC’s return visit to the championship game for a consecutive year is a rare one in the history of the NCAA tournament.

Teams have only accomplished the feat six times before, including a Dean Smith-coached UNC team that won the title in 1982, after falling short in 1981.

The Tar Heels are basketball aristocracy, but Gonzaga has been a small-school challenger for years.

Gonzaga first burst onto the national scene in 1999 when the unknown mid-major made it to the Elite Eight. But the Bulldogs have never gone further until now. Coach Mark Few was an assistant that first year, took over as head coach the next season, and has taken the team to the tournament each of his 18 years.

Before this year’s tournament, Gonzaga had a history of not being able to defeat the nation’s top ranked teams.

With a core group of seniors and juniors, this year’s team has proven to be a formidable opponent for the Tar Heels, along with touting a record of 37-1.

Gonzaga's only loss came to Brigham Young in the final game of the regular season.

North Carolina is 32-7 against a tougher schedule, but both teams have been dominant this year. Both are No. 1 seeds and both have been ranked No. 1 in the nation during the regular season.

Both had to dispatch tough opponents on the way to the finals.

Big man Kennedy Meeks saved the Tar Heels with 25 points and 14 rebounds in Saturday’s 77-76 win over Oregon.

Guard Nigel Williams-Goss led the Zags’ 77-73 win over South Carolina with 23 points, five rebounds and six assists.
In the other semifinal, North Carolina defeats Oregon 77–76.