ATLANTA -- A floundering first half made way for a sizzling second, and a fitting finish beckoned when Wichita State's Ron Baker rebounded a free-throw miss by Louisville's Luke Hancock.
The Shockers trailed, 71-68, with 8.8 seconds left in the national semifinals at the Georgia Dome and would have a chance to tie. But then Hancock tried to grab the ball from Baker, Baker stumbled a bit, the ball popped out ... and a whistle that seemed awfully fast essentially ended the game.
A jump ball was called, giving possession back to Louisville, and Russ Smith sealed the 72-68 victory with a free throw. As great as that second half was, it ended with a common refrain this season: gripes about officiating.
"I was forced to dribble the ball because I lost my balance," Baker said of the play. "I thought the ball was loose before the whistle was blown. I tapped it to (teammate) Malcolm (Armstead). They already called jump ball, so ..."
So that was the ballgame. And the possession arrow was in Louisville's favor because of a double foul called earlier in the half.
The Shockers didn't complain much about that costly sequence afterward, but coach Gregg Marshall was asked how long an official should wait before calling a jump ball.
"Well, as soon as both players have control of it to prevent a wrestling match, I guess," Marshall said. "So if both players have their hands on it, it should be a held ball."
WALK-ON WILDNESS: A hidden key to Louisville's comeback was the brief shooting flurry from walk-on guard Tim Henderson -- forced into 10 minutes of action with normal No. 3 guard Kevin
Ware out with the gruesome leg injury that became one of the stories of the tournament.
Down 47-35 in the second half, Louisville got consecutive corner threes from Henderson after Wichita State one-and-one misses to get it quickly to 47-41. These were the biggest shots of Henderson's career.
"We're really happy for Tim hitting those shots," Hancock said. "We kind of knew that was going to be our time. ... We were going to make our run now or it wasn't going to happen."
NO ANSWERS: Armstead, Wichita State's senior point guard, was having a terrific tournament, averaging a team-best 15.5 points entering the Final Four. He had a rough Saturday, at least as a shooter, finishing 1-for-10 overall and 0-for-5 from three-point land.
"Just missing shots," he said. "A lot of my shots were uncontested."
Armstead did handle the Louisville pressure well for most of the night and finished with seven points and three assists. At one point he got through the pressure with a spin, then a dribble off the knee of Louisville's Peyton Siva.
NOTEBOOK: This will be Louisville's third title game and an attempt to go 3-0. The Cardinals beat UCLA, 59-54, in 1980 and beat Duke, 72-69, in 1986. ... Louisville's 34 victories is a school record; the record of 33 was shared by the '80 and '05 teams. ... Wichita State finishes 23-2 when leading at the half.
Contact Joe Rexrode: 313-222-2625 or jrexrode@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @joerexrode. Check out his MSU blog at freep.com/heyjoe.
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