Al, You Went Out In Style

UNCC's zone press bothered Marquette at the start of the second half, and when Lew Massey hit a jumper with 2½ minutes gone, Charlotte had the lead for the first time. After that it was a seesaw game. With about four minutes remaining, Massey put Charlotte up by one. When Marquette missed a shot, the 49ers rebounded and whittled away the seconds until Melvin Watkins was fouled with 1:41 left. He made both free throws and UNCC led 47-44, looking as if it were ready for Monday night.

But Lee cut the margin to one with a 22-foot jump shot from the top of the circle. Maxwell was fouled with 49 seconds left and missed. Marquette rebounded and got the ball to Lee, who again hit on a clutch jumper, this one putting Marquette back in the lead. Then Massey missed an 18-foot jumper and the Warriors' Gary Rosenberger was fouled as he went in for a breakaway layup with 13 seconds remaining. This was a chance to hush sweet Charlotte for good.

UNCC called time, partly to shake up Rosenberger. To keep him loose, McGuire started punching him on the shoulder, whereupon Jerome Whitehead, the game's leading scorer with 21 points, turned on McGuire. "He thought I was pulling my psycho act again," Al said.

Rosenberger missed his first shot, however, so that when he made the second, Marquette's lead was only two points and Charlotte was alive. Barely. With 10 seconds left, the 49ers worked the ball to Maxwell, who drove the middle and sent up an off-balance shot that somehow went in. 49-49. Three seconds left. Time out, Marquette.

Onto the court marched McGuire. "I wasn't out there to do my Jimmy Durante act," he said later. "I wanted to check the height of the clock." McGuire was concerned that Lee's inbound pass from the baseline might hit the Omni's huge clock-and-scoreboard above midcourt. If that happened, the ball would go to Charlotte under the Marquette basket, with three seconds still remaining. McGuire was also worried that Lee might hurl the ball too far, that it would sail out of bounds. If so, see above.

Lee whipped the ball far downcourt, much as the Russians did in the historic game against the U.S. in the Munich Olympics. It glanced off Bo Ellis' fingers at the foul line, went through Maxwell's hands and was caught by Whitehead, who threw up a lunging layup. Maxwell went up with him and partly blocked the shot, but the ball ricocheted off the backboard and through as half the arena raced to join Referee Paul Galvan at the scorer's table. Had Whitehead's shot beaten the clock? "McGuire was going crazy," said Charlotte reserve Ken Angel. "I thought it was going to be a prizefight."

Suddenly McGuire, ever the actor, emerged from the crowd with a resigned look on his face, his shoulders hunched and his arms spread woefully. Lee put an arm around McGuire and hugged him as the Marquette fans burst into cheers. Score the goal. "It was a bad way to end the season," said Cornbread, who was outstanding in defeat.

For a while it appeared that North Carolina never would make it to the final. In its semifinal against Nevada-Las Vegas, Guard Phil Ford seemed tired and had seven turnovers in the first half, and only O'Koren's back-door buckets kept the Tar Heels close. Carolina made 15 baskets underneath but trailed 49-43. "I didn't think their long jump shots could keep going in," Dean Smith said later.

Early in the final half, Vegas streaked ahead by 10, but Center Larry Moffett was hit in the nose and had to leave the game. Vegas seemed rattled. The Tar Heels, led by O'Koren and Rich Yonakor, scored 14 of the next 16 points to take the lead. With 15:40 remaining and Carolina up a basket, Smith signaled for the four corners. Ford responded with a drive down the middle, and Las Vegas was playing catchup the rest of the way, forcing turnovers, but then inexplicably forcing shots. "We were very unorganized," said Forward Eddie Owens. "Whoever got it, shot it. We knew if they got a half-point lead they would go into the four corners."

Carolina showed signs of cracking near the end when Tony Smith's jumpers brought Las Vegas to within two with a minute left. Then John Kuester sank five straight free throws, and Davis intercepted a pass underneath. The Tar Heels won 84-83, Vegas cutting the margin from three with a basket at the buzzer. "It was like a schoolyard game," said O'Koren, who finished with 31 points. "Except they weren't crackin' heads on D. They'd lunge one way, I'd be gone back door the other."