Officials weren't great in North Carolina's National Championship victory over Gonzaga, 71-65, Monday night. And arguably the worst call of the night unfortunately came down the stretch, with less than a minute remaining after a loose ball ended up in the hands of North Carolina's Kennedy Meeks and Gonzaga's Killian Tillie.
With UNC leading, 66-65, refs ruled it a jump ball despite Meeks' hand clearly being out of bounds while touching the ball.
Not picking this up is the thing of nightmares pic.twitter.com/OmzxBlK8XB
— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) April 4, 2017
ugh, don't look at this @GettySport photo of Meeks' hand Gonzaga fans pic.twitter.com/qNPKsbDqyP
— Eric Kay (@ekaycbs) April 4, 2017
North Carolina would get possession, score and make the game a three-point contest, 68-65, with only 26 seconds remaining. Gonzaga would turn the ball over, leading to a North Carolina dunk that extended the lead to five points and put the game out of reach with only 12 second remaining. It's a brutal what-if, but the Zags are going to spend the offseason thinking about how one call could have made the difference.
At the end of the day, a three-point deficit didn't put the game out of reach and Gonzaga simply didn't take care of business.
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