GLENDALE, Ariz. — Dillon Brooks methodically twirled a pair of scissors in his hands as he sat and described how North Carolina had just buried a dagger in the Duck’s season.
Brooks had just watched his team’s historic run through March end in agonizing fashion. They fell 77-76 to a Tar Heel squad that dangled a win in front of the Ducks for the entire game, only to pull it away at the last second.
“We lost this game not at the end of the game,” Brooks said. “We lost it in the middle. We didn’t take care of the basketball. No rebounding during the game.”
Brooks blamed himself for fouling out with 1:32 left to play. One locker over, Jordan Bell sat, inconsolable, and shouldered the blame after failing to pull down a rebound on the last play of the game.
Oregon’s run through March had been fueled by a red-hot shooting streak from Tyler Dorsey, while its regular season conference title was due in large part to some late-game heroics from Brooks. Oregon needed one of them to come to the rescue on Saturday, but it never happened.
Instead, whenever the Ducks cut a deficit, or looked to be swinging momentum, Tar Heel forward Justin Jackson became North Carolina’s own superhero and extinguished each and every Oregon comeback effort.
Jackson, the ACC player of the year and an All-American, was there to haunt the Ducks every step of the way. While Kennedy Meeks bulldozed his way to a 25-point double-double, Jackson was canning contested jumpers that made a seven point deficit feel like 70. He finished with 22 points on 6-of-13 shooting and buried four of North Carolina’s eight 3-pointers.
“He was just making shots,” Brooks said of Jackson. “Making tough ones. He was getting his fingerprints all over the game.”
Oregon began to find its offensive rhythm five minutes into the second half. But as Dylan Ennis carved his way to the basket for contested layups, and Dorsey worked his way to the free throw line, Jackson made sure the Ducks were trading two points for three. When he wasn’t scoring, he made life difficult for both Brooks and Dorsey on the defensive end.
“Once we started getting stops, we didn’t have to play against a set defense the whole time,” Jackson said. “And I think that was the biggest part of it was we were able to get out in transition and get better shots out of things we wanted to do.”
Jackson scored 11 points in a four minute span during the second half and pushed the North Carolina lead to nine with 12 minutes to go. That span included three 3-pointers, two of which came after Oregon had scored a basket of its own.
“It was tough, just because we knew that’s what he did going into the game,” Oregon forward Keith Smith said. “Just to let him do that was not what we wanted. I think if you take some of his points off the board and Meeks’ points off the board, we win that game.”
Meeks flaunted all week that the Tar Heels planned to neutralize the post presence of Bell by attacking the weak side each time Bell helped over to contest a shot. True to his word, Meeks racked up eight offensive rebounds, most of which came after Bell had left the hoop to go help a teammate. For long stretches of the game, North Carolina’s best plan of attack was to chuck up a shot and let Meeks play as a rim-runner and crash the glass.
But when Meeks went to the bench in foul trouble on two separate occasions in the second half, it was Jackson who kept the offense afloat.
Oregon’s tournament run was decorated with dramatic Hollywood endings. For three straight games leading up to Saturday, Dorsey and Bell were there to save the day when the Ducks seemed doomed.
On Saturday, there was none of that. Only Jackson systematically picking apart Oregon’s defense and deflating another dazzling comeback before the Ducks could start one.
Follow Jarrid Denney on Twitter @jarrid_denney