Villanova betrayed by three-point shooting

Reynolds, who shot 3 for 11 from beyond the three-point line, wasn't alone in his frustration.

The Wildcats hit just 2 of 12 from three-point range in the opening 20 minutes last night, allowing North Carolina to build a lead that quickly and easily reached 17 points. They were just as bad in the second half, making only 3 of 15 threes.

After trimming it to nine at the end of the first half and five a few minutes into the second, Villanova's poor shooting never allowed it to get closer in what would be an 83-69 loss to conclude a remarkable postseason.

"Our greatest strength as a team was being aggressive," Reynolds said. "Coach kept telling us to stay after it, if the shot's there to take it. We weren't going to try anything different than we'd been doing."

If it weren't for the Tar Heels' early display at the other end of the floor, you might have suspected that the color-rich vastness of Ford Field had impacted the eyes and perspectives of Villanova's three-point bombers.

Reynolds and his teammates said their off-nights had little or nothing to do with the setting, where the Cats also shot poorly in a loss to Kansas in the 2008 Midwest Region.

"You can't blame it on anything but us," said Dwayne Anderson, the senior who missed all six of his threes in his final Villanova game.

Still, something, perhaps the unusual backdrops on the court situated in the midst of the enormous domed facility or the odd depth-perception, seemed to bother the Wildcats. In fact, they never looked comfortable, missing 11 consecutive shots during one particularly fallow stretch of the second half.

Trying to stay within range of red-hot Carolina, the Wildcats went early and often to the three, with little reward. They fired off an array of duds from distance in the opening 20 minutes and never got much better the rest of the way.

"Carolina did a great job of contesting our shots," said Reynolds.

They missed when Carolina's long-and-lean defenders had hands and arms in their faces and they missed when they were wide open.

"We knew we had to get up close on them," said the Heels' Ty Lawson. "Seeing them on film, when they get open looks, they hit shots. They'd been hot in the tournament."

Typically, Villanova hits 35 percent of its three-point attempts. But as North Carolina steadily widened the gap early, then rebuilt it again after a mini-Nova run early in the second half, the Wildcats stayed cold.

They missed 10 of 12 threes in the first half. Midway through the second, they were a woeful 3 for 25 from beyond the line and finished 5 of 27.

Reggie Redding, who made 2 of 3 from the distance, had hit a three-pointer early in the second half. He would hit another with 5 minutes to play. In between, the 'Cats missed 11 straight threes.

"I thought when Reggie came out and hit that one after halftime, it would get us going," said Anderson. "But it didn't happen."

North Carolina, on the other hand, set up its long-range shooting perfectly.

First, they sucked the Wildcats' defenders inside with their determination to get Tyler Hansbrough the ball. That quickly opened up things on the outside.

The Tar Heels, getting open looks time and again, made 6 of 11 three-pointers in the half, 11 of 22 for the game.

If all that weren't bad enough, five of them came from Wayne Ellington, the Episcopal Academy graduate Jay Wright had wanted so badly to bring to the Main Line.

On two consecutive trips down the floor early, the Tar Heels worked the ball inside, then kicked it out to a wide-open Ellington.

The smooth-shooting wing man finished the half with 13 points, knocking down three of four three-pointers. He hit two of three after intermission and ended up with 20 points.

"Carolina played great," said Anderson, "but we're better than that. We can definitely play better than that. And shoot better than that."