Sad ending to a beautiful story

No, the basketball gods were never, ever going to let North Carolina lose two title games in a row.

That simply can’t happen to royalty.

Not in our universe.

So foul calls go the right way, opponents’ shots that have dropped in all year suddenly roll out, the other team’s star absolutely wrecks his ankle with 1:29 left in a one-point game as no foul is called, of course ...

And Carolina wins, as the gods and game officials have decreed it.

Gonzaga became the latest great team to end up in shock Monday night, as North Carolina got just enough breaks — and help from somewhere — to survive 71-65 and win another national championship.

They called it redemption, after Carolina lost last year’s finale on a last-second shot by Villanova.

But in reality, this was a horrible game dominated entirely by the officials. If it had gone another few minutes, they’d have fouled out the entire Gonzaga student body.

Somehow, though, Carolina big men Kennedy Meeks and Isaiah Hicks were allowed to keep on banging away inside, clobbering everything in sight — but finishing with only four fouls each.

AND YEP, it was Meeks with a block and Hicks with a critical bucket that finished off the fierce but shorthanded Zags.

But the moment that truly decided this thing will be remembered around here as the “ankle play.”

Zags star Nigel Williams-Goss, who had taken over the game with one drive through the lane after another, headed across the baseline toward the left corner with Carolina up 66-65 and less than two minutes to play.

Williams-Goss had scored eight straight points for Gonzaga, and the Tar Heels had no answer for him, but ...

A late-arriving Theo Pinson first bumped Williams-Goss, then knocked him into a weird position that caused a hideous twist to an already injured ankle.

The way the game had been called, with fouls whistled just for breathing on somebody, Williams-Goss should have been limping to the foul line.

But ... nope.

Not against North Carolina.

So Mark Few burned a timeout, Williams-Goss ran in circles around the court to keep blood pumping to that badly sprained ankle — and when play resumed, the All-American guard took the ball into the lane one more time.

On a wounded foot, though, his rhythm was off and the shot came up just short.

Hicks scored on the next possession and the Zags truly were cooked. Meeks blocked Williams-Goss’ next shot and the national championship dream was done.

TO BE brutally honest, I’m sure the Zags will fly home believing they were the better team, but never really got a fair chance to show it.

It’s actually amazing — and a testament to how good this Gonzaga team really was — that the Zags had a lead with 2:20 remaining.

They had a chance to win despite Przemek Karnowski missing one easy shot after another, balls just barely rolling off the rim like he’d been cursed.

They had a chance despite everyone being in foul trouble from start to finish, with Few having to rotate his big men every 30 seconds or so.

They had a chance despite never getting to play Gonzaga basketball with the awful stop-start-stop grind of the entire second half.

They had a chance despite not scoring from the floor for a span of eight minutes, 27 seconds — which would doom anyone but this talented and ferocious bunch.

Carolina was destined to win this title.

That was the script, but the Zags hadn’t read it and played a desperate, scrapping game like an army out of ammo.

Under the circumstances they played like the best team in the country.

I believed they were, and I still do.

But sometimes the sports gods have some other outcome in mind, and there’s just nothing that can change it.

The whole thing hurts like hell, as Williams-Goss’ tears showed you pretty plainly, but the Zags belong to the elite now.

They’ll be outstanding again next year and consistently after that, so maybe the hoops gods will square things up in another title game.

Gonzaga deserves it.

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Steve Cameron is a special assignment reporter for The Press. Reach Steve at [email protected].