Roger Powell Jr. and Luther Head scored 20 points each and the University of Illinois beat Louisville 72-57 Saturday to climb within one victory of the school's first national championship.
Head made his first four 3-point attempts in the second half to help the Illini on an 11-0 run for a 61-49 lead with 6 minutes left. Powell, meanwhile, hit a pair of 3s and powered underneath for a few more buckets to help the Illini pull away and give them an edge on the inside in an otherwise very even game.
Next for Illinois, a matchup Monday against North Carolina for the championship.
Head's backcourt teammates, Deron Williams and Dee Brown, each struggled, shooting a combined 5-for-17, and just 3-for-14 from 3-point range. But, Williams, who scored Illinois' first and last bucket of the game, finished with nine assists and five rebounds to go with his five points. Brown ran the point and took care of the ball, adding four assists.
Francisco Garcia, the Cardinals' best player most of the season, finished with four points and ended the season with two subpar games, this one coming on top of the come-from-behind win over West Virginia in which he fouled out and watched the last 9 minutes from the bench.
Taquan Dean and Larry O'Bannon picked him up in that one, but not this time. Dean never found his touch, going 4-for-15 and only making two 3-pointers as part of a 12-point night. O'Bannon went 4-for-10 for 12 points.
Forward Ellis Myles led the Cardinals with 17 points.
UNC 87, Michigan St. 71
North Carolina showed off a dizzying display of weapons in the Final Four, blowing out Michigan State in the second half on the way to an 87-71 victory Saturday night that sent the Tar Heels to the title game against top-ranked Illinois.
Sean May scored 22 points -- all but four after halftime -- and Jawad Williams added 20. Rashad McCants had 17. And Raymond Felton chipped in with 16 while running the point. This is a deep, talented bunch -- and perhaps the best chance yet for coach Roy Williams to finally win the last game of the season.
He went 0-for-4 in the Final Four during 15 years at Kansas, losing twice in the championship game.
The Tar Heels (32-4) certainly have their work cut out for them Monday night, taking on an Illinois team that has lost only once and was ranked No. 1 much of the season. The Illini cruised past Louisville 72-57 in the first semifinal Saturday.
Michigan State (26-7), which already had knocked off Duke and Kentucky in the regional, seemed poised to knock off another member of college basketball's royalty. The feisty Spartans shut down May, crashed the boards relentlessly and led 38-33 at halftime.
But North Carolina scored the first six points of the second half to reclaim the lead, made 11 of their first 15 shots to take control and spent the final minutes putting on an emphatic dunkfest.
May, held to 2-of-8 shooting in the first half, hit 7 of 10 shots over the final 20 minutes. In fact, the Tar Heels had surpassed their scoring output for the first half with more than 10 minutes left in the game. They finished right at their nation's-best scoring average of 88.8 points per game.
Led by May, North Carolina dominated on the inside, finishing with a commanding 46-28 edge for points in the lane.
The final is a matchup between two sentimental coaching favorites. The mother of Illinois' Bruce Weber died last month during the Big Ten tournament. Then there's Williams, who never quite could take Kansas all the way.
Williams, who's willing to put his emotions on display for all to see, went through a gut-wrenching decision to leave the Jayhawks when the Carolina called him home two years ago.
Williams is a Tar Heel through and through -- a North Carolina native, he went to school in Chapel Hill, sent his two children to school there, learned the coaching ropes as an assistant to Dean Smith.
When Carolina first called, Williams couldn't bring himself to leave Kansas. But he finally made the move that always seemed his destiny when the Tar Heels came back to him in 2003, eager for the right man -- the only man -- to rebuild a program that fell into disarray under Matt Doherty.
Now, just three years removed from a 20-loss debacle, North Carolina is one victory away from its first national championship since 1993.
Williams' last trip to the title game was his last hurrah at Kansas. The Jayhawks lost 81-78 to Syracuse, a potentially tying 3-pointer blocked in the waning seconds.
Refusing to quit despite all sorts of adversity, the Orlando Magic mounted several comebacks and defeated the New Jersey Nets 103-102 Saturday night to clinch the tiebreaker between the teams.
Steve Francis had 33 points, five assists and seven rebounds for Orlando, which won the season series 3-1 with a gutty performance befitting of a team fighting to make the playoffs.
The Magic, who were missing starters Grant Hill and Jameer Nelson, had lost 11 of 14 coming in and were at risk of falling two games behind Philadelphia for eighth place in the East.
Instead, Orlando passed New Jersey in the conference standings and sent the Nets to a crushing loss.
Rookie Nenad Krstic scored a career-high 28 points to lead New Jersey.
Heat 111, Hornets 99
In New Orleans, Shaquille O'Neal had 34 points and 15 rebounds, Dwyane Wade scored 33 points, and the pair combined for more than a dozen dunks to help Miami defeat New Orleans.
Wade and O'Neal entered the game averaging a combined 47.1 points, a mark they surpassed in the third quarter, when the Heat lead by as many as 20.
P.J. Brown scored a season-high 21 in a rare reserve role.
Bulls 112, Bobcats 97
In Chicago, Othella Harrington scored 22 points and Chicago won its ninth straight game.
The Bulls easily extended their season-high winning streak and moved 10 games over .500 despite missing two players. Chicago moved a half-game behind the Washington Wizards for the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Eddy Curry missed his third straight game and remained hospitalized for more testing on an irregular heartbeat. Luol Deng also missed the game for Chicago with a sprained right wrist.
Rookie Emeka Okafor finished with 28 points and 16 rebounds.
Spurs 95, Lakers 94
In San Antonio, Brent Barry banked in a running layup with 6.7 seconds left to lift San Antonio over the reeling Los Angeles Lakers.
Kobe Bryant had a chance to win it, but missed an 18-footer off the back rim at the buzzer.
The Lakers have lost 10 of 11, including seven straight on the road. San Antonio swept the series between the teams for the second time in three years. Los Angeles is now 33-39. The last time the Lakers were this far under .500 in April was in 1994. They finished that season at 33-49.
Barry scored 20 points for the Spurs.
Caron Butler led Los Angeles with 27 points. Bryant, averaging 30.6 points in his last five games, finished with 15 points on 6-for-19 shooting.
Nuggets 103, Trail Blazers 97
In Portland, Oregon, Carmelo Anthony scored 23 points and reserve Earl Boykins added 17 points, leading Denver to a win over Portland.
Andre Miller added 16 points for the Nuggets, who have won 17 of 19 games and hold a half-game lead over Memphis in the race for the seventh playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Damon Stoudamire led the Trail Blazers with 27 points, and Shareef Abdur-Rahim added 20.
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