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.
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