North Carolina follows Justin Jackson's advice, finishes Syracuse in Final ...

11:26 PM ET

• 
  Eamonn Brennan ESPN Staff Writer
  Close

  • Covers college basketball
  • Joined ESPN.com in 2009
  • Graduate of Indiana University

  Follow on Twitter

• Email
• print
• comment

HOUSTON -- Justin Jackson had just seen his teammate, Isaiah Hicks, clean up a miss that was so bad it looked like a pass, but he was hardly troubled by the aesthetics of his contribution. At the moment, he had more pressing concerns on his mind.

As Jackson retreated to the defensive end, he began to clap. Loudly.

"Hey!" Jackson screamed. His teammates turned briefly to see what the commotion was all about. When the sophomore forward was satisfied, he delivered his message:

"Finish it!" he screamed. Marcus Paige nodded his agreement.

"Finish!"

North Carolina's Justin Jackson found himself trapped on the baseline by Syracuse's 2-3 zone during the second half of the Tar Heels' national semifinal win over the Orange. Suddenly, Jackson found teammate Marcus Paige, who was cutting to the basket. But when Paige saw Orange guard Malachi Richardson at the rim, he flicked another pass -- not just any pass, a one-handed touch pass that he never fully possessed -- to an open Kennedy Meeks under the basket, who flushed a two-hand slam that helped the Heels' prevail.

• More of our favorite One Shining Moment montage candidates here!

Jackson was referring to the final four minutes of the first half, but his message was just as relevant -- and the importance of its execution most obvious -- in the second. Facing a Syracuse team that got to the Final Four with a mind-bending double-digit second-half comeback against No. 1 seed Virginia, North Carolina, in its 83-66 win Saturday night, did what the Cavaliers couldn't. It finished.

Not that there weren't scares. By the 14:07 mark in the second half, when Paige delivered a gorgeous touch pass to an open Kennedy Meeks under the rim, UNC had turned its eight-point halftime lead into a 55-39 margin. Then, as the game neared the moment when Syracuse began to make Virginia crumble, the Orange found their verve: Trevor Cooney hit a 3 and followed it with a fast-break dunk off a Paige turnover. Malachi Richardson got to the rim. The lead was down to 10.

Roy Williams called a 30-second timeout. He ripped off his glasses and laid into his team, stomping and screaming, asking the Tar Heels if they were sure they wanted to win.

Then, after the break, Richardson -- sound familiar? -- hit a well-defended 3. Suddenly, the lead was down to just seven. Syracuse fans were roaring, and deja vu seemed to be rushing in.

But Paige answered with his own 3 one trip later. Williams pumped his fist and screamed again, but with a different message: "Let's play some ball!"

That is as good a description as any of what Carolina did the rest of the way, as it wheeled past Syracuse's formerly game-changing press, knocked down open shots, gobbled offensive rebounds, and shoveled the overmatched Orange so far down there was no way last weekend's unlikely comeback magic could sneak back to the surface again.

Carolina followed its coach's advice, and Jackson's. It played some ball. And it finished.