Luke Maye gets a standing ovation at his 8 a.m. class the day after putting Tar Heels into Final Four
Luke Maye’s Monday morning started like this:
The North Carolina backup forward received a standing ovation at his 8 a.m. class in Chapel Hill. That’s because he did this Sunday evening in Memphis:
Maye made a shot with three-tenths of a second remaining for a 75-73 victory over Kentucky to send the Tar Heels back to NCAA tournament’s Final Four for the second straight year.
That shot followed a dramatic three-pointer by Kentucky’s Malik Monk that tied the South Regional final at 73 with nine seconds remaining.
Maye is a sophomore in his first season on scholarship after being a preferred walk-on as a freshman. He averaged 5.1 points and 3.8 rebounds in only 13.8 minutes this season but had 16 points and 12 rebounds in North Carolina’s victory over Butler in the regional semifinal.
And after his heroics on Sunday, he might have to get used to those standing ovations, at least for the next couple of days.
“I came from a small town in North Carolina and always wanted to be in this opportunity,” Maye said, “and now that I’ve had it, it’s an awesome feeling.”
Staff writer Ben Bolch contributed to this report.
Twitter: @chewkiii
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