1 + 1 + 1 + Arizona = Final 4

SYRACUSE, N.Y. —  It was unlikely a Dean Smith-coached team was going to blow a 21-point halftime lead and somehow lose to injured and undersized Louisville on Sunday, especially with the Final Four only a net-cutting away.

But with 7:38 left in the East Regional final, the Tar Heels seemed on the verge of just such an apocalypse.

It was at that point in top-seeded North Carolina’s 97-74 victory that Smith crowded his team around him during a timeout and said: “They could come back and win. But, hey, it’s all right. We’ve had a great season.”

Call it reverse psychology, and it did reverse the 31-15 Louisville run that jolted 30,230 at the Carrier Dome, most of whom had done the math at halftime and figured on North Carolina’s 13th trip to the Final Four and fourth in the 1990s.

“We knew he was trying to get in our heads,” sophomore forward Antawn Jamison said, “but we knew deep down inside the game was not going to get away from us.”

After Smith’s doctoring, the Tar Heels outscored Louisville, 28-8. It came after the sixth-seeded Cardinals trimmed the North Carolina lead to three, 69-66.

“It was a motivating factor,” Jamison added. “[The game] was within our grasp, and we decided as a team that it was time to go get it.”

North Carolina did indeed get it, led by Shammond Williams, who scored 22 points with six assists and was named the regional’s most valuable player.

“They responded accordingly after that timeout,” Smith said. “They played great in the first half and over the last seven minutes.”

The part in between belonged to Louisville (25-9), which played courageously considering it gave up an average of three inches to North Carolina (28-6) at every position and had point guard and leading scorer DeJuan Wheat limping the ball upcourt because of a sprained ankle.

Wheat told Coach Denny Crum he could play after shooting before the game, but he scored only six points in 32 minutes, and was relegated to standing outside the three-point line and finding open teammates.

“DeJuan wasn’t 100%,” Williams said. “But he showed guts trying to play. He did a great job considering, but they were at a minimum.”

That showed most in the first half, when North Carolina held Louisville without a field goal for the final 5:29, scored a field goal or made a free throw on 10 consecutive possessions, and went into the half with a 54-33 advantage. The Cardinals had not trailed by more than nine at the half all season.

The Tar Heels’ zone took away Louisville’s inside game and forced the Cardinals to shoot three-point shots, which they did a season-high 34 times, making 11.

“That’s our weakness,” Cardinal guard B.J. Flynn said. “They’re a lot bigger and they dominated us inside and forced us to shoot outside.”

Louisville centered its defense on Jamison in the first half and he scored only six, but Williams made three of four three-pointers and had 15 at the break, and Vince Carter scored 13 of his 18.

“Teams are going to try and stop Antawn, but if they do that Shammond or myself will step up,” Carter said. “Or Serge [Zwikker] or Ed Cota [who each had 13] will come through.”

During the same timeout that Smith played his mind game, Crum pleaded with his team: “Don’t quit. You’ve done an amazing job.”

But after getting within three, Louisville missed its next seven shots.

“We had a lot of problems with their size, but I’ll tell you, coming back like that in the second half showed character,” said Crum, who lost his first regional final in seven tries. “I know we kind of ran out of gas, but we made a great run. And to do that with DeJuan at half mast took a lot of courage.”

Smith was also proud of his team, which won its 16th in a row. After beginning Atlantic Coast Conference play 3-5, North Carolina has not lost.

“There are a lot of special guys on this team,” he said. “I was the most surprised man in the locker room back after some of the games they have won.”

Said Jamison, who scored 15 and played most of the game with an injured back: “This is a special feeling. We had some tough times, but after what happened [Sunday] it shows how hard we worked.

“Back when we were losing we weren’t playing as a team and there were a lot of egos. But we got together and we put everything aside, and now we’re in the Final Four.”