San Antonio, TX -- (Sports Network) - Brandon Rush had 25 points, and Kansas surged to a surprising huge first-half lead before beating North Carolina, 84-66 in the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament.

Darnell Jackson added 12 points for the Jayhawks (36-3), who will take on Memphis Monday night in the championship game. The Tigers beat UCLA, 78-63, in Saturday's other national semifinal.

"I definitely expected this matchup because Memphis is a great school," Rush said. "They got a great team. They get up and down the floor like North Carolina does and like we do. I definitely expected this big time. I know we were going to come through at the end with North Carolina."

Kansas, which set a school record for most wins in a season, used a 25-2 run in the first half to lead by as many as 28 points before the Tar Heels cut it to 17 at the intermission. UNC got as close as four in the second half, but a tiring Jayhawks team kicked it into another gear down the stretch, beating the Tar Heels' press for dunks and were able to pull away.

Mario Chalmers and Sherron Collins each tallied 11 points for the Jayhawks, who are trying to win the championship for the first time since 1988.

Wayne Ellington scored 18 and Tyler Hansbrough totaled 17 points and nine rebounds for the Tar Heels (36-3), who had their 15-game winning streak broken and were denied a chance to play for their second championship in four years on Monday night. Danny Green had 15 points in defeat.

"You get here to the Final Four, you feel like you've been playing good, and then we just didn't come out with the energy we needed to tonight," Hansbrough said. "Just frustrating."

It was a bitter end for North Carolina head coach Roy Williams, who was at the helm of the Jayhawks for 15 seasons, but never won the NCAA Tournament until he got to guide his alma mater.

For a while it looked as if the Tar Heels could be on their way to the largest comeback win in Final Four history, as Ellington's layup had Williams' team within 54-50 with 11:15 left.

That capped 14 straight points for North Carolina, but Rush and Jackson came back with layups to stem the tide.

Facing a 58-53 deficit, the Tar Heels came inches of pulling within two as Green's long-distance shot rolled around the rim and out with just over eight minutes to go.

Hansbrough's driving shot from the right baseline had the Tar Heels within 64-59 with 5:41 remaining, but later the Jayhawks scored 13 in a row, opening an insurmountable 80-61 margin with less than two minutes to go, sending head coach Bill Self and Kansas to its 12th straight victory.

"It was three different games," Self said. "The first game we were great. The second game we weren't very good, they were great. The last game, obviously we played super down the stretch."

Included in the big game-sealing burst was an alley-oop jam off a feed from Rush to Jackson that beat North Carolina's pressing defense.

The Tar Heels were held without a field goal for a nine-minute stretch, missing 13 straight shots, in the first half. During that time, the Jayhawks moved what had been a 15-10 lead to 40-12.

"We didn't play the way we wanted to early to say the least," Williams said. "I guess it's a little like that story about the little engine. It spent so much trying to get up the hill, it didn't have anything left when it got to the top."

Included in Kansas' surge was 18 straight points. Rush and Chalmers hit consecutive shots from beyond the arc during the flurry and a jumper by Cole Aldrich capped the surge with 6:48 left in the half.

"It definitely feels good because we were the underdog the whole game, so we just came out and just applied pressure to them," Rush said. "We got up and did some big things."

However, Kansas then got sloppy during a 10-0 run for the Tar Heels. After Chalmers jammed to momentarily stop the burst, the Tar Heels cut it to 15 on a three-pointer and layup, both from Green. Collins then ended the half with a bank shot for a 44-27 margin.

"Sometimes when we're up a lot on teams and guys keep looking up at the scoreboard, we can't believe we're up that much," Jackson said. "We can't do that because sometimes guys get satisfied. You can see the last four minutes, we went brain-dead for a little bit. We just lost focus. North Carolina went on a transition break and they were making layups, getting three-point plays."

Chalmers scored on a textbook back-door layup to open the second half, but later UNC embarked on its big 14-point splurge, but could never get over the hump.

Game Notes:

Duke rallied from a 22-point deficit to beat Maryland in the 2001 Final Four...North Carolina leads the all-time series with the Jayhawks, 6-3...The Tar Heels shot 29 percent in the first half and 35.8 for the game..Kansas was 54.5 percent in the opening 20 minutes...UNC finished 5-of-24 from beyond the arc...Darrell Arthur had six points, nine rebounds and four blocks for Kansas...The Jayhawks had 50 points in the paint to 30 for the Tar Heels.