Ty Lawson scored 22 points, Wayne Ellington had 20, and the Tar Heels - with their four, five, maybe more NBA-caliber players - eased to an 83-69 win Saturday night over the plucky but overmatched Wildcats.
Tyler Hansbrough had 18 points and 11 rebounds to mark a successful return to the Final Four after a remarkable dud last year in a semifinal loss to Kansas. Next up, North Carolina (33-4) goes for its second title in five years Monday against Michigan State.
The Spartans, located 90 miles up the road in East Lansing, will certainly have to be at least 35 points better than they were in December when the teams met in this same building for a 98-63 UNC romp.
Meanwhile, Villanova (30-8) ended a successful season two wins short of its first title since 1985, when Rollie Massimino coaxed one of the greatest upsets in sports history out of his guys - a 66-64 win over Patrick Ewing, John Thompson and Georgetown.
Thompson was on press row doing radio and Massimino was chomping his gum nervously behind the Villanova bench, part of the record crowd of 72,456 at Ford Field - which was half gone and streaming toward the exits with 5 minutes left.
But James Naismith himself probably couldn’t have helped ’Nova out of this one. North Carolina simply has too much talent.
Last year, in one of the more inexplicable performances in Final Four history, the Tar Heels trailed Kansas 40-12 midway through the first half.
This time, they led 40-23.
“I’ve been there. I was there a year ago,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “It feels like somebody jerks your heart out and shakes it.”
Ellington made five of his first six shots, including a 3-pointer after a perfect crosscourt pass over the top from Danny Green. And nobody for Villanova had an answer for Hansbrough.
Lawson went 5-for-11 from the field with eight assists and seven rebounds. Had he shot better than 10-for-17 from the line, the game might have been more lopsided.
And so, what began as a tournament with great potential for the Big East - three top seeds, two in the Final Four - will end with the conference on the sideline.
No disrespect to Villanova, which made it interesting for a brief time. The Wildcats cut the deficit to five early in the second half and it could have been three, but Dante Cunningham’s jumper went halfway in before cruelly rimming out.
Green answered with a 3-pointer, then the Tar Heels got a steal and layup from Lawson to push the lead back to 10. It took all of 64 seconds.
“We’re happy,” Williams said. “We’re going to enjoy the dickens out of this one for a while.”
Though the rest of the second half was a jumbled mess for both teams - allowing Villanova to stay within shouting distance - the Wildcats never got the deficit back under double digits.
It was a typical no-quit effort from coach Jay Wright’s group of seasoned upperclassmen, who battled through the Big East and started putting it together come tournament time.
Scottie Reynolds will always have that indelible end-to-end game-winning layup against Pittsburgh last weekend that got Villanova to its first Final Four since ’85. His first basket in this one, however, didn’t come until more than 9 minutes were gone and the deficit was in double digits. He finished with 17 points on 6-for-18 shooting.
Cunningham, the Wildcats’ leading scorer and rebounder this season, led them again with 12 and 12.
A lot of Villanova’s stats didn’t look so bad. The Wildcats totaled five more rebounds and were even in the turnover battle. They hustled and dived on the floor all night.
But as the game was getting out of reach early, they simply couldn’t defend. North Carolina shot 67 percent while opening a 17-point lead in the first half. The Tar Heels led 49-40 at halftime.
And the Wildcats couldn’t shoot. Villanova shot 33 percent from the floor, not exactly the 78.6 percent from that game back in ’85. The Wildcats were even worse from 3-point range - 5-for-27.
