North Carolina guard Ty Lawson (left) gets a shot away in front of forward Blake Griffin in Sunday's win over Oklahoma during the NCAA Tournament at Memphis, Tenn.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Tyler Hansbrough deferred to his teammates, just as he’d hinted he might.
This was no one-on-one matchup down low. Instead, North Carolina rolled past Blake Griffin and Oklahoma with a total team effort.
Ty Lawson scored 19 points and top-seeded North Carolina overcame a quiet game from Hansbrough to beat the Sooners 72-60 Sunday in the South Regional final.
North Carolina (32-4) advanced to the Final Four for the second straight year and will play Villanova in the national semifinals.
“This is what we work for,” the Tar Heels’ Wayne Ellington said. “We put so much work in and sweat in the offseason to get not to this point, but past this point. It means a lot to be able to get to this point and have an opportunity to win the whole thing.”
Danny Green scored 18 points for the Tar Heels and Deon Thompson added 10. Hansbrough was in foul trouble early and finished with only eight points, but he’d said the previous day he wasn’t going to be caught up in a head-to-head battle with Griffin.
Griffin scored 23 points with 16 rebounds for second-seeded Oklahoma, but the Sooners (30-6) went 2 of 19 from 3-point range.
“One thing about Blake is I think he’s tough down low to box out,” Hansbrough said. “I think one thing about him is he’s one of the best rebounders I’ve played against and so that was very tough. I think he gets a lot of stuff off offensive rebounds and his rebounding ability was something I think I’m not really used to seeing.”
Still, it was Hansbrough who was standing on the court after the game, posing for pictures while the Tar Heels cut down the nets. That’s a routine this program has down pat.
North Carolina reached a record 18th Final Four. UCLA has been to 18, but the Bruins’ 1980 appearance was later vacated by the NCAA because of rules violations.
This will be the Tar Heels’ second Final Four in a row and ninth in 19 seasons – and it will be played at Detroit’s Ford Field, where they routed Michigan State 98-63 in December. Earlier Sunday, the Spartans also reached the Final Four.
North Carolina lost in the semifinals last season.
“This team has dealt with a great deal of adversity and a great deal of expectations from other people and they have us going to Detroit,” coach Roy Williams said.
North Carolina led 61-40 before Oklahoma scored nine straight points, including its first 3-pointer after 15 misses to start the game. Lawson made a couple free throws with 4:12 to play to halt that run.
“We fully believed we were going to win this basketball game today, but this is how life is sometimes. It doesn’t happen the way you want it,” Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel said.
“I thought the game would’ve been a lot more interesting if we could’ve made some shots, but I thought we had some really good looks.”