Their basketball lives depended on every second and every play.
Illinois players made the most of every one of them Saturday night to stage one of the most thrilling comebacks in the history of college basketball.
Trailing third-seeded Arizona by 15 points with 4 minutes 4 seconds left in regulation, the Illini mustered every ounce of their energy and channeled it into a 90-89 overtime victory in the NCAA tournament’s Chicago regional final at Allstate Arena.
“Unbelievable game,” Illinois coach Bruce Weber said.
“A miracle,” Dee Brown called it.
Down the road they will go to St. Louis for their first Final Four since 1989. Top-seeded Illinois (36-1) will play Louisville (33-4) in a national semifinal Saturday at the Edward Jones Dome. The Illini will be trying for the school’s first NCAA title in their 100th season.
Fist-pumping fans, like the 16,957 who came to Rosemont and were fixated on a gripping, improbable rally, will follow the Illini on their march.
Illinois had set countless records this season, but only the Final Four berth could satisfy the Illini.
They accomplished their goal when Arizona’s Hassan Adams missed a three-pointer with Deron Williams in his face as the clock ran out in overtime.
A party ensued. James Augustine raced from the bench to hoist Brown. Roger Powell raised his fingers toward the roof and thanked a higher power over and over. Weber shed enough tears to fill a water cooler as he embraced his wife, Megan, and three daughters.
“It took all we had to get this win,” Williams said.
The players jumped, and they hollered. They might have danced, if not for the exhaustion from staging their comeback.
“I can see why they’re 36-1,” Arizona coach Lute Olson said. “They are not a team that is going to give up.”
Illinois had let a seven-point first-half lead evaporate and appeared bewildered by Arizona’s Channing Frye and Hassan Adams. The 6-foot-11-inch Frye scored a game-high 24 points to go with 12 rebounds, and Adams added 21 points.
“It seemed like we were dying,” Weber said.
Williams and Luther Head gave Illinois new life in the final 3 minutes 50 seconds of regulation, when they combined for 16 of the Illini’s final 20 points.
“No matter what happens, don’t give up,” Head said he told his teammates.
They heeded the senior leader.
“I didn’t want our season to end,” Williams said. “If we were going to go down, we were going to go down fighting.”
Williams finished with 22 points to go with 10 assists and was named the regional’s outstanding player. Head added 20 points and had four steals. Powell scored 16 and Brown 15 to go with seven assists.
In that last stretch, Illinois jarred the Wildcats (30-7) with non-stop, full-court pressure and capitalized on critical steals by Head, Brown and reserve Jack Ingram, who filled in admirably for Augustine.
Augustine fouled out with about 3 1/2 minutes to go in regulation. He had been Illinois’ leading scorer in the tournament but managed only four points.
Williams forced overtime with a three-pointer off the dribble with 38.2 seconds left. Arizona’s Jawann McClellan missed a three-pointer with five seconds to go, and Brown rebounded.
Brown attempted to throw the ball down the court but the play fizzled. Arizona’s superman, Salim Stoudamire, recovered the ball and tried to hit a game-winner, but Head blocked it.
In overtime, Williams scored the first basket, but consecutive baskets by Arizona’s Channing Frye gave Arizona an 84-83 lead. Powell barely dropped the ball in with less than three minutes left, on a pass from Williams, to put Illinois up for good at 85-84.
Williams and Head continued their heroics from there. Williams sank his fifth three-pointer and Head, who had been nursing an injured hamstring all week, muscled up over Arizona’s Mustafa Shakur with a grimace to extend Illinois’ lead to six.
“I still don’t know what happened,” Head said later.
Adams scored the next five points for Arizona but couldn’t come up with a game-winner against Williams.
“You have to give those kids from Illinois a tremendous amount of praise,” Olson said. “That they could hit the shots they needed to hit and they could still dig in . . . they did a great job.”
Williams was stupendous down the stretch offensively and spectacular on defense from the game’s start to its finish. He guarded Stoudamire most of the way and held him to nine points. Stoudamire had averaged 21 in three previous games.
“He’s a big-time player,” Stoudamire said of Williams.
Weber has referred to this record-setting season as magical. His late mother, Dawn, called it a fairy tale.
There weren’t enough superlatives to describe it.
“It’s a game that will be showed many, many times as a classic,” Weber said.
A classic, indeed.
Illini in the Final Four
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YEAR OPPONENT RESULT
1949 Kentucky L 76-47
Oregon State W 57-53-a
1951 Kentucky L 76-74
Oklahoma St. W 61-46-a
1952 St. John’s L 61-59
Santa Clara W 67-64-a
1989 Michigan L 83-81
a: third place game
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