• Championship game: By the numbers

  • By ESPN Stats & Information | April 7, 2009 4:14:57 AM PDT
North Carolina easily cruised to its fifth national championship in school history and its first since 2005, defeating Michigan State 89-72 at Ford Field in Detroit.

Largest point differential

For an NCAA tournament champion since 1985.

Year Team Point Diff.
1996 Kentucky +129
2009 UNC +121
1990 UNLV +112
2001 Duke +100
1993 UNC +94
The Tar Heels jumped out to a 34-11 lead and never looked back as they went into halftime leading 55-34, the largest halftime lead ever in a title game. It was also the most points scored by a team in the first half of a title game.

It was a fitting end to a dominant run through the NCAA tournament for the Tar Heels, who became the first team since Florida in 2006 to win both Final Four games by at least 14 points, as well as the first team since Duke in 2001 to win each game by double digits. A 12-point win against Oklahoma in the Elite Eight was UNC's slimmest margin of victory.

ACC vs. Big Ten

In NCAA tournament title game.

Year Champion Runner-up
2009 North Carolina Michigan State
2005 North Carolina Illinois
2002 Maryland Indiana
1993 UNC Michigan
1992 Duke Michigan
1981 Indiana UNC
The win over Michigan State also improved North Carolina's record against the Spartans in the NCAA tournament to 5-0 all-time. And if the ACC was looking for bragging rights over the Big Ten, it can point to its record against the Big Ten in NCAA tournament national championship games. It was the fifth straight win for the ACC over the Big Ten in a title game.

Wayne Ellington was named Final Four Most Outstanding Player. He scored 19 points against MSU, and he was 8-of-10 from 3-point range in two Final Four games. Tyler Hansbrough finished his final game in a Tar Heel uniform with 18 points and seven rebounds, giving him 325 career points in the NCAA tournament. Hansbrough also joined an elite group of players to have scored 2,000 career points, grabbed 1,000 career rebounds and won a national championship in their final game, joining Christian Laettner, Danny Manning, Greg Kelser and Lew Alcindor.

Career scoring leaders

In NCAA tournament history.

Player School Points
Christian Laettner Duke 407
Elvin Hayes Houston 358
Danny Manning Kansas 328
Tyler Hansbrough UNC 325
Oscar Robertson Cincinnati 324

Ty Lawson continued his great tournament run with 21 points, 8 steals, 6 assists and 4 rebounds against Michigan State. Lawson equaled a Final Four record with 10 steals over the two games and ended the tourney with 104 points, 34 assists and 21 rebounds. That puts him in lofty company: He became just the fifth player since 1997 to total 100 points, 30 assists and 20 rebounds in a single tournament, joining Derrick Rose (Memphis, 2008), Dwyane Wade (Marquette, 2003), Jason Williams (Duke, 2001) and Andre Miller (Utah, 1998).


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