This time, the Tar Heels take the title

North Carolina, a year after losing the NCAA men’s basketball tournament to Villanova on a last-second shot, defeated Gonzaga 71-65 Monday night in Glendale, Ariz., in a tight game that wasn’t very pretty. Referees called 27 fouls in the second half, placing both teams in the bonus with 13-plus minutes left, turning what could have been a classic game into a free-throw shooting contest. “It’s a very difficult game to call,” said North Carolina coach Roy Williams, who has led the Tar Heels to three of the school’s six titles. “I’m sitting over there, I’m not thinking the officials are doing a terrible job. … I’m thinking our offense stinks.” And he was right. North Carolina shot only 35 percent from the field, but Gonzaga was even worse at 34 percent. The game’s hectic final minute also featured a controversial non-call by the officials, when possession of the ball at a key moment was awarded to the Tar Heels on a jump ball, but replays and photos show North Carolina’s Kennedy Meeks was out of bounds. There was no protest and no review of the play at the time. “Probably on me,” said Gonzaga coach Mark Few. “From my angle, it didn’t look like an out of bounds situation or I would have called a review. That’s tough to hear.” But in the end, North Carolina came through when it counted to make up for last year’s defeat. “They wanted redemption,” Williams explained. “I put it on the locker room up on the board—one of the things we had to be tonight was tough enough. I think this group was tough enough tonight.”