INDIANAPOLIS -- Florida draped North Carolina with its deep bench, and a clutch kid from West Virginia threw the dagger at the Tar Heels in a national semifinal game at the RCA Dome.

There were still 10 minutes remaining when Gators freshman guard Brett Nelson

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drilled a 3-point shot to give Florida a five-point cushion, but there wasn't a more important shot in the Gators' 71-59 victory.

From then on, stiff-armed Gator chomps were frequent by the huge portion of Florida fans among the crowd of 43,116. Key Tar Heels got into foul trouble and the Gators press started smothering Carolina, all of which was ignited by Florida's rejuvenated offense.

That's what Nelson sparked, and it will land Florida in its first national championship game Monday night here against Michigan State.

"That kind of fired us up," said Nelson, a 6-foot-3 rookie from the Kanawha Valley area of West Virginia that produced hotshot Jerry West. "They had gone on a little run, we came back and answered them and that gave us momentum. After I hit that shot, they never really got back into the game.

"That kind of was a dagger."

Florida center Udonis Haslem, a 6-7 sophomore from Miami, snuck up to the top of the key to pick off North Carolina senior guard Ed Cota. Nelson slid two steps to his left, had a wide-open look at the basket and hit the shot.

"No one was around me," Nelson said. "Yeah, it was pretty much that easy."

The fearless Nelson led a strong charge by the Gators' bench that not only outscored Carolina's reserves 37-2, it outscored Florida's starters 37-34.

Florida coach Billy Donovan said playing the rigorous Southeastern Conference schedule honed his backups to be ready for action the second their number gets called, and North Carolina was the second Atlantic Coast Conference power to fall to the Gators in the NCAAs.

They defeated Duke in an East Regional semifinal in Syracuse.

Nelson dreamed of playing for either of those two ACC programs, or SEC juggernaut Kentucky. Instead, the clutch shooter who received a key to his hometown of St. Albans, W.V., almost a year ago is part of "Billy Ball" in Gainesville, Fla.

He's the assassin on "Billy's Bench."

"Those are high-energy guys," Florida assistant coach John Pelphrey said of the Gators' reserves. "Their effort and intensity doesn't drop off when we go to the bench. It might even go up to another level. If other teams get into foul trouble, it can affect their team.

"With the way our guys are playing, if a guy isn't having his best game someone has his back. When you can do that, you can be devastating."

Like Saturday night, as Florida cuddled a 4-3 lead when the first television timeout was called 4 minutes, 16 seconds into the game. Donovan yanked everyone but versatile forward Mike Miller from the game, and the Gators scored the next 11 points.

Nelson hit a 3-point shot from the left side to finish that little run and force Carolina coach Bill Guthridge to call a timeout. The commercials rolled, and an orange-clad fan not far from the Florida bench held a "RCO'Dome -- Only Gators Get Out Alive!" sign high.

The O'Dome, the affectionate term all Gators use for their O'Connell Center home, is where the Florida first team battles the second team on a regular basis.

When play resumed, Major Parker stole the ball from Heels center Brendan Haywood, Kenyan Weaks sank a 3-pointer of his own from the top of the key and Florida had an 18-3 edge.

Guthridge called another timeout to settle his squad, and then Carolina showed why it's the most poised Final Four team in the land. No program has more national semifinal appearances than its 15, and the Tar Heels' experience showed as they came back to trail by only three at halftime.

Haywood was a force, having scored 16 points and grabbing seven rebounds in the opening half.

And then Carolina kept that momentum going in the second half. Worse for the Gators, ace freshman shooter Joseph Forte was warming up. He had averaged 20 points in four NCAA Tournament games, but Teddy Dupay and others hounded him into 0-for-5 shooting in the first half.

That drought ended when Forte sank a jump shot along the left baseline 2½ minutes into the second half to tie it 40-40. A minute later, he sank a 3-pointer from the right side off a strong Haywood rebound for a 45-42 lead. Another bomb by Forte 37 seconds later doubled Carolina's lead.

Florida's Major Parker (left) and Brent Wright embrace after beating North Carolina.(AP)

Dupay missed a wild fling, Donnell Harvey was whistled for his fourth foul and the Tar Heels' faithful went bonkers.

But Donovan didn't. He calmed his players with his palms to the ground, they pressed, Carolina stumbled around on offense, getting called for a 35-second shot-clock violation, and the Gators were off and running.

Matt Bonner put in a close shot, and Cota was called for charging into Weaks. Haslem converted a dunk off a sweet Nelson pass to get Florida within 48-46.

But Cota got hit with his fourth foul -- reaching in on Nelson -- after Lang hit a hook shot, and the Heels were starting to crumble. And Nelson went to work, knowing that Cota would have to play reserved.

The Florida press clamped down on the Heels, Weaks hit a 3-pointer, Carolina couldn't even get to halfcourt within the required 10 seconds, and Nelson hit a 17-footer. Forte sank a 3-pointer, but Nelson answered quickly with his second and final one -- the 21-foot dagger -- to give the Gators a 58-53 edge with 10 minutes left.

It was all over.

Jason Capel picked up his fourth foul, the Heels turned it over on consecutive possessions and, by hitting a couple of long shots, Nelson drew some renewed attention that opened the post for the Gators' big men.

With seven minutes left, Cota slowly walked off the court during a timeout and looked to the roof of the RCA Dome, or higher, for some help. None was forthcoming, as Florida put the finishing touches on a game-deciding 20-6 run out of that timeout.

"They were getting tired, picking up fouls at a rapid rate, and when fatigue sets in you get those 10-second calls. You don't really attack as quickly as you should," Pelphrey said. "It gets long in between timeouts. We were down six, then we were up six just like that. A lot of things were going our way.

"If you don't play hard in this style, you'll get exposed. But it's been pretty successful so far."