Awful all night, Harrison Barnes came through when North Carolina needed him most.

Barnes scored five of his 12 points in overtime and the top-seeded Tar Heels escaped a huge upset with a 73-65 victory over 13th-seeded Ohio on Friday night in the Midwest Regional semifinals at St. Louis.

Ohio, trying to become the first team seeded 13th or worse to make the regional finals since the NCAA tournament expanded in 1985, had a chance to convert a three-point play that would have given the Bobcats the lead with 25 seconds left in regulation. Walter Offutt missed from the line, however, and Ohio went 0 for 6 from the field in the first overtime of this year's tournament.

"One free throw away," Offutt said. "As a leader on this team, I take responsibility that I've got to hit that free throw. ... It just feels terrible to kind of let my team down in that sort of way."

Tyler Zeller finished with 20 points and a career-high 22 rebounds for North Carolina, which sorely missed injured point guard Kendall Marshall. The Tar Heels had three players with double-doubles for the first time in an NCAA tournament game: Reggie Bullock had 17 points and 10 boards, and John Henson had 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Offutt led the Bobcats (29-8) with 26 points, including 18 from 3-point range, and Nick Kellogg added 14. But D.J. Cooper, who had averaged 20 points in the first two tournament games, finished with just 10 on 3-of-20 shooting.

North Carolina (32-5), which has won 11 straight in the regional semifinals, plays Kansas on Sunday afternoon.

"It means a heck of a lot," coach Roy Williams said moments after his team escaped, "but we've got to play better than we did today."

The Tar Heels barely advanced without Marshall, perhaps their most irreplaceable player and the steadying hand behind their fast-paced attack. His absence clearly showed.

Williams said he didn't think Marshall would be able to play Sunday, either.

"I don't think so 'cause he still hasn't done anything, but North Carolina's going to play on Sunday. We're happy about that," he said.

Barnes was dismal, flirting with a season low in scoring as he went 3 for 16, missing from inside, outside and everywhere in between. But his teammates weren't much better, turning the ball over a season-high 24 times and shooting just 40 percent, six percentage points below their average. Worse, they could never get a handle on the smaller, quicker Bobcats.

"Probably the ugliest win I've ever been a part of," Reggie Bullock said. "But we won the game and, hopefully, we'll do better on Sunday."

After trailing by as many as 15 in the first half, Ohio got hot from long range and gave the Tar Heels almost more than they could handle. Ohio, a 10?-point underdog, was 8 of 13 from 3-point range in the second half, with Offutt doing most of the damage. He made a 3-pointer to start a 14-5 run and hit two more during the stretch, which pulled the Bobcats to 42-41 with 10:23 to play.

After Zeller's layup and a dunk by James Michael McAdoo, Cooper hit his only 3 of the game. Kellogg came right back with another to give Ohio its first lead, 47-46, with 8:28 to play, and the Ohio faithful - plus all the new fans the underdogs picked up - went into a frenzy.

The teams traded leads, neither able to put the other away. When Barnes missed badly on a 3 with 1:17 to play, the crowd taunted him with chants of "Air-ball! Air-ball!" But Williams could be heard yelling "One stop!" at his team, and the Tar Heels got it when Cooper missed a jumper at the other end.

Bullock then drilled a 3 to give North Carolina a 63-61 lead with 39 seconds left, but Offutt - who else? - scored on an off-balance drive and drew a foul by Stilman White, Marshall's fill-in, in the process. Offutt's foul shot was way left, the only free throw the Bobcats missed all night, and Zeller grabbed the rebound.

Kansas 60, North Carolina State 57: At St. Louis, Thomas Robinson had 18 points and 15 rebounds, Jeff Withey blocked 10 shots to finish one shy of the NCAA tournament record, and No. 2 seed Kansas held on to beat North Carolina State (24-13) in the Midwest Regional semifinals.

The Jayhawks (30-6) advanced to play top-seeded North Carolina for a spot in the Final Four when Richard Howell's off-balanced heave at the buzzer came up well short.

Elijah Johnson added 11 points for the Jayhawks, including a layup off an inbound pass from Tyshawn Taylor with 13.5 seconds remaining that gave them a calming cushion.

N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried called a timeout to set up a play, but Scott Wood stepped out of bounds while fielding a cross-court pass with 5 seconds left that kept one of the nation's best 3-point shooters from getting off a shot.

Baylor 75, Xavier 70: At Atlanta, Baylor's Quincy Acy scored the first basket of the game and the Bears were off and running.

The 6-foot-7 senior had a double-double and the Bears never trailed as they advanced to their second regional final in three years with a victory over Xavier (23-13).

Baylor will play Kentucky in Sunday's South Regional final.

Acy had 20 points and 15 rebounds. He sank two free throws with 31 seconds remaining after Xavier cut the Bears' lead to six points.

Baylor coach Scott Drew said it never gets old watching Acy play.

"Baylor fans have been blessed, the nation's been blessed, and he is a better person than a player," Drew said.

Baylor, wearing bright neon-green uniforms, led by 18 points less than 8 minutes into the game.

Xavier played from behind all night, but never quit. The Musketeers cut the lead to just three, 71-68, with 22 seconds remaining.

Pierre Jackson had 16 and Perry Jones III had 14 for the Bears (30-7).

Tu Holloway led Xavier with 22 points.

Xavier was hurt by poor shooting, especially from beyond the arc. The Musketeers were 0-for-11 on 3-pointers before Justin Martin ended the drought with 2 minutes remaining. He added another 3 40 seconds later, and Holloway's 3 with 22 seconds remaining cut the lead to 71-68.

Kentucky 102, Indiana 90: At Atlanta, Anthony Davis had a rather quiet night. No worries. He's got plenty of help at Kentucky.

The top-seeded Wildcats took care of the team that beat them back in early December and are off to another regional final, putting all their weapons on display in a victory over gritty Indiana.

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist scored 24 points and four other players were in double figures for Kentucky (35-2), which made up for a 73-72 loss to the Hoosiers.

Davis, the Wildcats' freshman star, wasn't a huge factor after picking up two early fouls, finishing with nine points and 12 rebounds. Kidd-Gilchrist took the starring role with a double-double, also grabbing 10 rebounds. Doron Lamb had 21 points, Darius Miller 19, Marquis Teague 14 and Terrence Jones 12.

Christian Watford had 27 points to lead the Hoosiers (27-9), whose comeback season ended two wins shy of the Final Four. Indiana, which won a total of 28 games the previous three seasons, has regained its usual place among the college basketball bluebloods under coach Tom Crean.

* NOTES

Duke expects Rivers' decision next week: Duke expects freshman guard Austin Rivers to decide next week whether he will enter the NBA draft.

Team spokesman Matt Plizga said that Rivers will discuss his future plans with his family this weekend, and an announcement on his future is expected next week.

The son of Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers averaged a team-leading 15.5 points and was a unanimous selection as the ACC's rookie of the year.

Miles headed to Nebraska: Nebraska has lured Colorado State's Tim Miles to Lincoln to take over its men's basketball team.

Colorado State athletic director Jack Graham announced that Miles had resigned so he could take the job with the Cornhuskers. Miles, who toured Nebraska's facilities Friday, will be introduced at a news conference today.

The 45-year-old Miles, who replaces Doc Sadler, just finished his fifth year at Colorado State. He coached the Rams to a 20-12 record this season and their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2003. They lost to Murray State 58-41 in their tournament opener.