The LSU men’s basketball had visions of dancing for another weekend. No. 8 seed LSU’s 12-2 run against No. 1 seed North Carolina to start the second half conjured visions of a very sweet and very unexpected trip to the Sweet 16. But the Tigers (27-8) forgot to check the fuel gauge. They ran out of gas – being outscored 21-7 over the game’s final eight minutes to fall, 84-70, to the Tar Heels (30-4). “For this team, for these seniors, it wasn’t supposed to end like this,” said LSU coach Trent Johnson. “There was a stretch there where we were making plays. We were executing them. I think we took the lead … I just wish I could have found some ways to help [LSU] be a little more to be successful tonight.” The run ended what had been a very tense half for the favored Tar Heels. LSU entered the second half trailing, 38-29, but managed to erase that daunting deficit in less than three minutes. LSU shot 6-of-7 in that span to grab a 42-41 lead, and a very pro-UNC crowd of 22,479 fell very silent. “We didn’t really step up to the challenge right away defensively. We knew they were going to come out and fight,” said North Carolina senior guard/forward Danny Green. “Thank God we stepped up to the challenge and got some stops later and pulled out the win. The teams traded baskets for 10 minutes, but the Tar Heels’ depth would prove to be too much. North Carolina’s trio of forwards – Tyler Hansbrough, Green and Deon Thompson – powered their way into the paint, while junior guards Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington slashed and shot their way to 46 combined points. Much was made of Lawson’s status with a jammed right toe, and the Maryland native showed exactly why Tar Heel nation was pining for him to play. Lawson sliced his way through the LSU defense for 23 points – 21 of them in the second half – after leaving the game with what appeared to be a complication to his injured toe during the first half. “He’s a pro. He’s probably one of the best point guards in the country. So for us we knew our hands were full in trying to contain him,” Johnson said. The performance validated his first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference selection. Lawson shot 53.5 percent from the floor, including making 2-of-3 3-pointers. He shot a perfect 7-of-7 from the free throw line and contributed six assists without a single turnover. “You have to respect his quickness, but at the same time he had two big 3s, so we tried to get up in him and he was able to penetrate,” Temple said. “The way he finishes, he finishes the best I’ve ever seen a point guard finish at his height. So he played a big part in that win.” The quality of Lawson’s second half raised a fair point from one reporter after the game: Could the Tar Heels have won the game without their injured point guard? “We’ll never know,” said North Carolina coach Roy Williams. “I didn’t feel good when I thought that he might not be coming back into the game.” Williams’ Tar Heels got the best shot of the LSU team that won 13-straight Southeastern Conference games and clinched the SEC regular season title – not the one that shot 30 percent in back-to-back losses to Vanderbilt and Auburn. As Johnson said, the Tigers had “nothing to hang their heads about.” LSU’s All-SEC duo of junior forward Tasmin Mitchell and senior guard Marcus Thornton fueled the Tigers’ during their run at the upset. Mitchell battled inside all night on the way to 18 points and six rebounds. His shooting slump to end the regular season had all but vanished as he shot 57 percent from the field and 2-of-2 from the line. Thornton ended his LSU career in a manner fitting of the SEC Player of the Year. The junior college transfer bombed his way to 25 points, shooting 45 percent from 3-point range. Thornton put the Tar Heel faithful on notice with three-straight 3-pointers in a span of two minutes – one of which he managed to sink while falling away from a challenge by Green, prompting Williams to call it “as big a shot as I’ve ever seen anybody make.” But it was to no avail. The Tar Heels will advance to the Sweet 16. The Tigers will go home after a season that no one saw coming, but no one wanted to see end. “I’m happy to be able to be in this situation that we’re in. I’m not happy that we lost the game, but just to be here with these guys with the expectation of not even making it, probably, some people thought,” Thornton said. “Just to be here with these guys is incredible, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.” —- Contact David Helman at [email protected]