North Carolina Falls to Fourth-seeded Kentucky 76-69 in Elite Eight

Filed under Game Recap on March 27th, 2011

Share this recap

Tweet

or

Second-seeded North Carolina was defeated in the Elite Eight with a 76-69 loss to fourth-seeded Kentucky in the Regional Finals in Newark.

North Carolina ends the season with a 29-8 overall record and a 14-2 record and first place regular season finish in the ACC.

The Tar Heels got to the NCAA Tournament as an at-large team after falling to Duke, 75-58, in the ACC tournament. In making the Elite Eight, North Carolina defeated 15th-seeded Long Island, 102-87 in the second round, seventh-seeded Washington, 86-83 in the third round, and then 11th-seeded Marquette, 81-63 in the Sweet Sixteen.

North Carolina was led by Tyler Zeller, who had 21 points on 75% shooting. The Tar Heels also got 18 points from Harrison Barnes, 11 from Dexter Strickland, and seven from Kendall Marshall.

Kentucky was on fire from beyond the arc, scoring 36 points in three-pointers to get an edge.

The Wildcats got their top scoring out of a game high from Brandon Knight with 22 points and seven rebounds. DeAndre Liggins (12), Josh Harrellson (12), Terrence Jones (11), and Darius Miller (11) all hit double figures.

Grade Player Mins Pts Reb Ast Stl Blk TO A+ Brandon Knight 40 22 7 4 3 0 3 A+ Josh Harrellson 38 12 8 4 2 1 1 A DeAndre Liggins 35 12 2 4 3 1 3 A Darius Miller 26 11 3 2 1 1 1 A Terrence Jones 34 11 7 1 1 2 4 B Doron Lamb 25 8 2 1 0 0 2	Grade Player Mins Pts Reb Ast Stl Blk TO A+ Tyler Zeller 36 21 9 1 0 4 2 A Harrison Barnes 34 18 6 2 1 1 4 A D. Strickland 37 11 4 2 3 0 0 B+ K. Marshall 36 7 3 8 4 0 3 B John Henson 23 4 9 0 1 0 2 B- Justin Knox 11 6 3 0 0 0 1 C- Leslie McDonald 17 2 1 0 0 0 1 C- Justin Watts 6 0 0 0 0 0 0

Kentucky will now move to the Final Four on Saturday, April 2nd.

• Harrison Barnes has 14 straight double-digit point games.
• This was the 1st foul out of the season for John Henson
• The top two rebounders (John Henson and Tyler Zeller) accounted for 50.0% of the rebounds.
• Prior to this game, UNC played 50 Top 25 opponents in the last 5 seasons with a record of 31-19.
• Tyler Zeller has led the team in scoring in 15 out of 37 games this season.

• Josh Harrellson has led the team in rebounding 23 times in 37 games this season.
• Josh Harrellson has 4 straight double-digit point games.
• The top two scorers (Brandon Knight and Josh Harrellson) accounted for 44.7% of the points.
• Brandon Knight recorded a team season high in three pointers attempted with 11.
• Brandon Knight has led the team in scoring 15 times in 37 games this season.

Check out the complete Games Notes