MEMPHIS, Tenn. " Blake Griffin found himself double-teamed early by North Carolina, so he passed the ball out to his open teammates.
Unfortunately, the Oklahoma Sooners couldn't knock down an open jumper.
Not when they needed to, anyway.
By the time Willie Warren hit Oklahoma's first 3-pointer, the Sooners had missed their first 15 attempts on their way to losing the South Regional final Sunday 72-60 to the top-seeded Tar Heels.
The Sooners came in averaging 79.2 points per game " 11th-best in the country " and they left with the worst scoring performance this season.
They finished with their worst 3-point performance as well, making only 2-of-19.
"It came down to our inability to make shots," Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel said. "Carolina had something to do with that, but we had some good looks and just missed it."
The Sooners' guards failed the most, and that stopped Oklahoma (30-6) short of a fifth Final Four and first since 2002. Capel had hoped for more in his third season at a program that has moved well past the NCAA sanctions from the Kelvin Sampson era.
Junior Tony Crocker, coming off a career-high 28 with six 3s in a regional semifinal win over Syracuse, was especially cold. He missed all three of his shots in the first half and played only seven minutes after picking up his second foul less than three minutes into the game. He finished with four points.
Crocker missed one try at the shot clock buzzer on one possession, then the Sooners couldn't even get a shot off before a violation on the next trip down the floor.
"We had open shots," Crocker said. "We didn't make shots, and we didn't take shots we should have took. When we open looks, we became passive, and it bit us in the butt."
As a result, the Sooners trailed 32-23 with the fewest points they had scored in a half this season. The Sooners scored 26 in the second half of a 69-44 win over Tulsa on Dec. 7.
Griffin, who came in averaging 30.3 points in this tournament, didn't score his first point until 8:29 was left in the first half. Then he quit deferring to his teammates. The Big 12 player of the year got his first points on a pair of free throws, and he wound up scoring 11 of the Sooners' 13 and the last seven straight for the rest of the half.
It didn't help.
North Carolina still led by nine after Griffin's first free throws, and that was the margin even after Griffin slithered his way between Tyler Zeller and Ed Davis for a final bucket with 5.3 seconds left.
Oklahoma had missed all nine of its 3-point attempts in the first half. Warren finally knocked down the 16th try with 5:15 remaining as part of nine straight points by the Sooners. That 3 just pulled Oklahoma within 61-47.
"If we could've made a few more 3s, some of those baskets, maybe it would've put a little more pressure on them and made things more interesting," Capel said.
North Carolina coach Roy Williams liked his defense in that first half, especially with the shot clock violations.
"No question we were very lucky they missed some open shots," Williams said.
The Sooners blamed themselves. They had been averaging 35.8 percent shooting from 3-point range, hitting 6.9 a game. They at least hit three 3s against Kansas State on Jan. 10 and Oklahoma State on March 12.
Sophomore guard Cade Davis said the Sooners didn't cut as hard or run their plays to their potential.
"We were real lax. We started doing that more in the second half," he said.
Warren finished with 18 points but was only 2-of-9 from 3-point range. He called it one of those games shooters go through.
"Shooters have good days," Warren said. "Days when you hit shots, and then days like we did. Today was one of those days where we couldn't hit it."
Without those outside shots, the Sooners couldn't provide any help to Griffin, who still posted his 30th double-double overall and 15th with at least 20 points and 15 rebounds. He finished with 23 points and 16 boards.
"That's what helped get us wins in the first three games. We made plays on the outside," Warren said.
Now the Sooners must wait to see if they played their last game with Griffin, the sophomore who considered testing the NBA draft a year ago.
Capel asked reporters not to pose that question to Griffin, not after this loss. Senior Taylor Griffin, who fouled out late in the game and kept a towel over his head even to the postgame interview room, couldn't talk about having played two seasons with his brother.
"It's not a season lost," Capel said. "This is foundation for what we're building and obviously Blake's been a huge piece of it. Hopefully, we'll be able to continue to reap benefits from what he's meant to this program."