updated 1:19 a.m. ET April 3, 2006

BOSTON - Ivory Latta’s feelings hurt more than her knee. And her knee was killing her most of the game.

The player whose passion and skill drive North Carolina smacked her left knee on the court 7½ minutes into the game and missed less than two minutes. But when she returned she wasn’t the same player who led the Tar Heels to the top overall seed in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament.

“The loss hurts,” Latta said after Maryland reached the national championship game with an 81-70 win Sunday night. “I can get my knee fixed.”

The junior guard finished second in The Associated Press player of the year balloting announced Saturday, just one vote behind Seimone Augustus of LSU. Augustus also struggled Sunday night against Duke, failing to score in the first half as the Blue Devils took a 26-15 lead over the Tigers in the second semifinal.

On Sunday, Latta finished with 14 points after averaging 18.6 during the season. She hit only five of 17 shots (1-for-10 on 3-pointers) and went 3-for-14 after being injured. She said she didn’t know what the injury was.

“I wasn’t able to do as much as I wanted to as far as cutting and things like that,” Latta said. “I tried not to think about it. It affected me a lot.”

Her teammates could tell.

“She didn’t take it to the goal like she usually does, being aggressive,” LaToya Pringle said. “We had a lot of people that just didn’t play that well.”

Maryland’s Kristi Toliver had 12 turnovers but concentrated on stopping Latta.

“It was my main focus and all I had on my mind,” Toliver said. “Someone had to stop Ivory and I wanted to be the one.”

WOMEN’S NCAA TOURNAMENT RESULTS Title game Maryland 78, Duke 75 Final Four games Duke 64, LSU 45 Maryland 81, North Carolina 70

The hard floor helped her.

Latta was hurt when she jumped for a high pass under her basket and landed on her knee. She said she was pushed but no foul was called.

“I can honestly say I let the pain get to me. That’s not me. I usually don’t let anything get to me,” she said. “I let my teammates down.”

With 1:06 left in the game, she sank two free throws that cut the deficit to 73-70. Those were the last points for the Tar Heels (33-2), whose only two losses were to Maryland.

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Latta also missed a desperation 3-pointer with 21 seconds to go then missed again with 2.8 seconds to play and fouled Marissa Coleman as both players fell to the floor. Latta fouled out on the play, put her arm around the neck of coach Sylvia Hatchell, then paced in front of the North Carolina bench until the game ended.

“When I came down and hurt my knee I just heard (teammate) Erlana Larkins say, ‘We need you.’ I was just trying not to think about the pain,” Latta said. “I can never show pain to the other team.”

But she couldn’t hide the pain — in her knee and in her heart — from herself.

“There’s no reason for us to hold our heads down,” Latta said. “We had a fantastic season. Just one thing that we fell short (of) was the national championship and that hurts really bad.”

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