Sat Apr 5 23:19:35 2008

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Kansas' huge first half propels team past UNC

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San Antonio, TX (Sports Network) - Brandon Rush had 25 points, and Kansas surged to a surprising huge first-half lead before beating North Carolina, 84-66 in the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament.

Darnell Jackson added 12 points for the Jayhawks (36-3), who will take on Memphis Monday night in the championship game. The Tigers beat UCLA, 78-63, in Saturday's other national semifinal.

Kansas, which set a school record for most wins in a season, used a 25-2 run in the first half to lead by as many as 28 points before the Tar Heels cut it to 17 at the intermission. UNC got as close as four in the second half, but a tiring Jayhawks team kicked it into another gear down the stretch, beating the Tar Heels' press for dunks and were able to pull away.

Mario Chalmers and Sherron Collins each tallied 11 points for the Jayhawks, who are trying to win the championship for the first time since 1988,

Wayne Ellington scored 18 and Tyler Hansbrough totaled 17 points and nine rebounds for the Tar Heels (36-3), who had their 15-game winning streak broken and were denied a chance to play for their second championship in four years on Monday night.

It was a bitter end for North Carolina head coach Roy Williams, who was at the helm of the Jayhawks for 15 seasons, but never won the NCAA Tournament until he got to guide his alma mater.

For a while it looked as if the Tar Heels could be on their way to the largest comeback win in Final Four history, as Ellington's layup had Williams' team within 54-50 with just over 11 minutes left.

That capped 14 straight points for North Carolina, but Rush and Jackson came back with layups to stem the tide.

Hansbrough's driving shot from the right baseline had the Tar Heels within 64-59 with 5:41 remaining, but later the Jayhawks scored 13 in a row, opening an insurmountable 80-61 margin with less than two minutes to go, sending head coach Bill Self and Kansas to its 12th straight victory.

The Tar Heels were held without a field goal for a nine-minute stretch, missing 13 straight shots, in the first half. During that time, the Jayhawks moved what had been a 15-10 lead to 40-12.