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"They just threw the waves at us and it certainly was a factor," coach Bill Guthridge said.

Starters Joseph Forte and Jason Capel fouled out and Ed Cota and Brendan Haywood finished with four each. Guthridge surrendered against the pressing Gators with 15 seconds left, taking out his remaining starters as North Carolina lost its fourth straight in the national semifinals dating to 1995.

Florida coach Billy Donovan said that midway through the second half "about the 10-minute mark, we started to wear them down."

North Carolina (22-14) finished with its highest loss total since going 12-15 in 1951-52 under coach Tom Scott.

After four straight victories in a surprising run as a No. 8 seed, it was suddenly over for the Tar Heels.

"People called our tournament a fluke," Forte said. "The real fluke is the way we played in the regular season."

North Carolina was tied with Florida at 50-50 midway through the second half, but frustration and foul trouble were not far away.

Cota already had four fouls and was relieved of his press-breaking duties, while Forte was called for a technical foul for elbowing Major Parker, who also got a technical.

"My team wasn't comfortable with me playing with four fouls and my approach was different," said Cota, who finished his career 0-3 in Final Four games. "I wasn't being as aggressive."

Four turnovers later against the press, Florida led 62-54 and the Tar Heels were gasping for air.

"We started playing up and down -- Florida basketball -- and that really hurt us," Haywood said.

Signs of a comeback faded with two missed free throws by Forte and one by Haywood with 2:44 left and the Tar Heels down by seven.

"When they went up seven late, I looked at our guys and it was clear we didn't have the firepower to (come back) again," Forte said.

The 7-foot Haywood scored 16 points in the first half, but had only four in the second.

"In the second half our big guys stepped up and didn't do as much fouling," Parker said. "We followed the game plan, which was to front him and pack the lane in. We forced him to shoot jump hooks instead of dunks."

North Carolina teammates hold back Julius Peppers (45) after Peppers is called for a technical foul.(AP)

North Carolina shot less than 40 percent in each of its last three Final Four semifinals losses and was headed that way again after a horrid offensive start against the fired-up Gators.

Florida's press didn't bother the Tar Heels early so much as its poor shooting, starting 1-for-8 from the field. And while North Carolina did have six turnovers in the opening eight minutes, most came down low on balls stripped from the big men.

"I thought our guys had great intensity to start the game," Donovan said. "North Carolina took some ill-advised shots."

Donovan said he was proud to beat two schools from the powerful Atlantic Coast Conference in the NCAA tournament.

"To beat Duke and to beat Carolina speaks volumes for our league because those two programs have been models for success," Donovan said.