Completed Event: Men's Basketball versus No. 9-Seed Cincinnati (1st Round) on March 10, 2026 , Loss , 66, to, 73
Final Score
Men's Basketball
66
vs No. 9-Seed Cincinnati (1st Round)
73
The University of Utah Athletics
Utes Top No. 1 North Carolina, 65-59
6/21/1999 12:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 28, 1998
SAN ANTONIO (AP) - No gimmicks this time for Utah, just another win over a No. 1 seed.
One week after the Utes shocked the defending national champions in a 25-point laugher, they held on for a 65-59 victory over top-ranked North Carolina on Saturday, advancing to the Final Four championship game for the second time in school history. Utah won the national title in 1944.
On Monday night, the Utes (30-3) will face Kentucky, which beat Stanford 86-85 in overtime in the other semifinal. Kentucky knocked Utah out of the tournament the last two seasons and also in 1993.
Against Arizona last Saturday in the West Regional final, Utah coach Rick Majerus went with a triangle-and-2 defense and held the Wildcats to 28 percent shooting.
Against North Carolina (34-4), the nation's leading shooting team at 52 percent, the Utes went straight man-to-man and lived up to their title as the No. 2 field goal defensive team in the country. The Tar Heels shot just 39 percent (27-for-69), including 3-for-23 from 3-point range.
"This is just tremendous," Majerus said. "I thought our guys played their hearts out and let them game come to them."
The loss ended the great rookie season of 60-year-old Bill Guthridge, who replaced Dean Smith after sitting beside him for 30 years.
He led the Tar Heels back to the Final Four, just the seventh time a first-year coach got his team to the semifinals. He also set the record for victories by a first-year coach, but it wasn't enough to get the Tar Heels to their eighth national championship game.
Michael Doleac had 16 points for Utah, while Andre Miller, who had the first triple-double in school history against Arizona, had 16 points, 14 rebounds and six assists.
Vince Carter had 21 points for the Tar Heels on 10-for-16 shooting, the only Carolina player to shoot better than 50 percent, while Associated Press player of the year Antawn Jamison had 14 points on 7-for-19 shooting.
Shammond Williams, who was 1-for-13 in last season's 66-58 Final Four loss to Arizona, went 2-for-12 this year, finishing with seven points.
It seemed like North Carolina was going to end its season as Arizona had - at the wrong end of a big score against Utah. The Tar Heels, however, had a different ending planned and almost got it.
Trailing by 15 points six times in the second half, North Carolina used an 8-2 run to get within 50-41 with 11:15 to play, the first time it was within single digits since the 11:35 mark of the first half.
Utah starting coming up empty on possession after possession and the Tar Heels, though still struggling with their shooting, chipped away.
A 3-pointer by Carter made it 56-50 with 4:25 left; a 3 by Ademola Okulaja made it 57-53 with 3:24 to play; and a driving basket by Ed Cota had the Tar Heels within 57-55 with 2:02 left.
A layup by Miller gave Utah back a four-point lead with 1:51 left and the Utes made six of 10 free throws over the final 49 seconds to seal the victory.
Utah has won 10 of 11 games and the latest win was more like its first three in the NCAA tournament - close. The Utes won the first three games by an average of 8.6 points before blowing out Arizona.
North Carolina, on the other hand, had won its four tournament games by an average of 18 points in advancing to its fifth Final Four of the '90s.
The 13-point halftime deficit was North Carolina's biggest of the season. The Tar Heels trailed Wake Forest 48-36 after 20 minutes and rallied for a 79-73 victory.
The Tar Heels' shooting woes started right away and didn't disappear. They missed eight of their first nine shot and 15 of their first 21, finishing the first half at 11-for-36 (31 percent), a very un-Carolina effort, especially as they missed all eight of their 3-point attempts.
The Utah defense, however, played a large part, as it had all year.
North Carolina wasn't even able to take advantage of a brief offensive slump by Utah in the first half. The Utes managed just two points over the final four minutes of the half, but the Tar Heels had only two field goals over that span, both dunks, and they trimmed a 33-18 deficit to 35-22 at halftime.
Carter, with 10, and Jamison had all but four of North Carolina's first-half points.
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