Post by Soulbrotha on Apr 2, 2005 23:43:10 GMT -5
NCAA Game Summary - Louisville vs. Illinois
(Saturday, April 2nd)
Final Score: Illinois 72, Louisville 57
St. Louis, MO (Sports Network) - Luther Head tied a career-high with six three-pointers and scored 20 points as Illinois advanced to the national championship game for the first-time ever with a 72-57 win over Louisville in the Final Four at the Edward Jones Dome.
Head was 6-of-11 from behind the arc while Roger Powell Jr. also netted 20 points, including 18 in the second half, for the Fighting Illini (37-1), who appeared in the national semifinals for the fifth time in school history, but just the first since 1989.
"Luther came up big," said Illinois head coach Bruce Weber. "He played like a senior and the senior's carried us. I said a long time ago that our juniors are great, but we are no better than our seniors. Our seniors will determine how good we are. I think they stood up big tonight and made a difference, and they got us to the championship."
Illinois, which was the top seed from the Chicago bracket, will now take on North Carolina in Monday night's highly-anticipated championship game between a pair of teams that occupied the top two spots in the national polls for a majority of the season.
The Tar Heels advanced to the final with an 87-71 win over Michigan State.
"I mean, we feel good about what we did and what we've accomplished," said Head. "But we don't want it to end. We want to go and play hard against them (north Carolina) so we can finish it off."
The Illini, who overcame a 15-point second-half deficit before prevailing in overtime against Arizona in the regional final, did not need any miracle comebacks in this one to post their eighth consecutive win.
Illinois trailed for only 30 seconds in this game and put things out of reach courtesy of a huge second-half run.
Ellis Myles went for 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds for the Cardinals (33-5), who appeared in the national semifinals for the first time since winning the title in 1986.
Larry O'Bannon and Taquan Dean both netted 12 points in the loss, but the sharpshooting Dean was only 4-of-15 from the floor, including a dismal 2-of-9 from three-point range.
"We didn't see anything that our coaches hadn't prepared us for," said O'Bannon. "They jumped out a lot on the screens, were hedging a lot, trying to get the ball out of our wing players' hands, but nothing we hadn't seen."
Louisville, which was in the Final Four for the eighth time in school history, fell to 2-6 all-time in the national semis.
The Cardinals, who tied a school record by winning 33 games this season, had their 13-game winning streak halted and lost for just the second time in their past 24 contests.
"I'm proud of our guys," said Louisville head coach Rick Pitino. "They won an Olympic gold medal and that was our NCAA Final Four ring, but they (Illini) were the better team."
Louisville, the fourth seed out of the Albuquerque bracket, never got into a rhythm offensively and was held in check by the stifling Illini defense.
The nation's No. 1 ranked team for the majority of the season limited the Cardinals to just 39 percent shooting and also smothered Louisville's top scorer Francisco Garcia. The junior ended just 2-of-10 from the field and scored only four points.
"We did a really good job on Garcia," said Weber.
The Illini led 31-28 at the half, but Louisville came out with the first five points of the second to take its first and what turned out to be its only advantage of the game.
Illinois, though, quickly responded by reeling off 11 of the next 15 points, keyed by nine from Powell, to pull ahead 42-37 with 14:27 left in the game.
"Sometimes when you play zone you can't dictate who you stop because some guys are going to get open, but he (Powell) played brilliantly," said Pitino.
Jack Ingram's baseline jumper just under three minutes later extended the edge to 50-44, but five straight points, capped by Dean's three-pointer, immediately pulled the Cardinals within one point.
However, the Illini took over from there.
Illinois quickly scored 11 straight points, highlighted by a pair of threes from Head, to open up a 12-point cushion. James Augustine's free throw finally culminated the explosion and made it 61-49 with 5:37 left in the game.
The Illini then made it 64-51 on another Head three, but Louisville scored four straight points to climb within single-digits with 3:40 to play.
The Cardinals would not get any closer, though, as Illinois sealed the win at the free throw line down the stretch.
"We got better ball movement, we got it inside," said Weber on his team's play in the second half. "Once you get it inside you can suck them in and now we are getting it to the open shooters."
Illinois got off to a fast start as it scored eight of the first 10 points, but the Cardinals quickly pulled within 10-9 as Myles' basket with 14:46 left in the first half capped the 7-2 run.
Louisville stayed slightly behind over the next several minutes, but finally drew even as O'Bannon's three-pointer tied the score at 22-22 with 6:56 left. The Illini, though, countered as they used a 9-2 flurry to forge ahead by seven points. Head culminated the run with a three-pointer to make it 31-24 with 2:12 remaining in the stanza.
The Cardinals closed out the half with the final four points and went into the locker room trailing 31-28.
Dee Brown had eight points for Illinois, which connected on 6-of-19 tries from three-point range in the first half. The Illini had just one turnover in the stanza, but could not completely capitalize as they made only 38 percent of their shots from the floor.
Dean and Myles both netted seven points for Louisville, which was just 3-of-10 from three-point range. The Cardinals also turned the ball over only once in the half, but struggled from the floor as well as they hit on just 36 percent of their attempts in the opening 20 minutes.
Game Notes
Brown ended with eight points after not scoring a second-half point, while Deron Williams had just five points for Illinois. Augustine ended with six points and 11 boards...The Illini were 27-of-56 from the floor (48 percent) and hit on 12-of-30 three-point tries (40 percent). Louisville was only 21- of-54 from the field and 6-of-20 from behind the arc (30 percent)...Illinois also made the Final Four in 1949, 1951 and 1952. There were just eight teams in the tournament in 1949 and 16 in the field in both 1951 and 1952. The 1989 team lost to eventual national champion Michigan in the semifinals...The Illini improved to 37-25 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and are 12-2 as a No. 1 seed...The Cardinals reached the Final Four in similar fashion as Illinois did when Louisville rallied from a 20-point first-half deficit in last week's regional final against West Virginia, before eventually winning in overtime...The Cardinals also won 33 games in 1980 when the school went 33-3 en route to its first of two national championships...Louisville was the first No. 4 seed to make the national semifinals since Ohio State accomplished the feat in 1999...Pitino became the first men's coach to take three different schools to the Final Four as he also did it with Providence (1987) and Kentucky (1993, 1996, 1997)...Louisville fell to 53-34 all-time in the tournament...Illinois leads the all-time series 3-2 and snapped a two-game losing streak to the Cardinals.
04/02 23:25:39 ET
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(Saturday, April 2nd)
Final Score: Illinois 72, Louisville 57
St. Louis, MO (Sports Network) - Luther Head tied a career-high with six three-pointers and scored 20 points as Illinois advanced to the national championship game for the first-time ever with a 72-57 win over Louisville in the Final Four at the Edward Jones Dome.
Head was 6-of-11 from behind the arc while Roger Powell Jr. also netted 20 points, including 18 in the second half, for the Fighting Illini (37-1), who appeared in the national semifinals for the fifth time in school history, but just the first since 1989.
"Luther came up big," said Illinois head coach Bruce Weber. "He played like a senior and the senior's carried us. I said a long time ago that our juniors are great, but we are no better than our seniors. Our seniors will determine how good we are. I think they stood up big tonight and made a difference, and they got us to the championship."
Illinois, which was the top seed from the Chicago bracket, will now take on North Carolina in Monday night's highly-anticipated championship game between a pair of teams that occupied the top two spots in the national polls for a majority of the season.
The Tar Heels advanced to the final with an 87-71 win over Michigan State.
"I mean, we feel good about what we did and what we've accomplished," said Head. "But we don't want it to end. We want to go and play hard against them (north Carolina) so we can finish it off."
The Illini, who overcame a 15-point second-half deficit before prevailing in overtime against Arizona in the regional final, did not need any miracle comebacks in this one to post their eighth consecutive win.
Illinois trailed for only 30 seconds in this game and put things out of reach courtesy of a huge second-half run.
Ellis Myles went for 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds for the Cardinals (33-5), who appeared in the national semifinals for the first time since winning the title in 1986.
Larry O'Bannon and Taquan Dean both netted 12 points in the loss, but the sharpshooting Dean was only 4-of-15 from the floor, including a dismal 2-of-9 from three-point range.
"We didn't see anything that our coaches hadn't prepared us for," said O'Bannon. "They jumped out a lot on the screens, were hedging a lot, trying to get the ball out of our wing players' hands, but nothing we hadn't seen."
Louisville, which was in the Final Four for the eighth time in school history, fell to 2-6 all-time in the national semis.
The Cardinals, who tied a school record by winning 33 games this season, had their 13-game winning streak halted and lost for just the second time in their past 24 contests.
"I'm proud of our guys," said Louisville head coach Rick Pitino. "They won an Olympic gold medal and that was our NCAA Final Four ring, but they (Illini) were the better team."
Louisville, the fourth seed out of the Albuquerque bracket, never got into a rhythm offensively and was held in check by the stifling Illini defense.
The nation's No. 1 ranked team for the majority of the season limited the Cardinals to just 39 percent shooting and also smothered Louisville's top scorer Francisco Garcia. The junior ended just 2-of-10 from the field and scored only four points.
"We did a really good job on Garcia," said Weber.
The Illini led 31-28 at the half, but Louisville came out with the first five points of the second to take its first and what turned out to be its only advantage of the game.
Illinois, though, quickly responded by reeling off 11 of the next 15 points, keyed by nine from Powell, to pull ahead 42-37 with 14:27 left in the game.
"Sometimes when you play zone you can't dictate who you stop because some guys are going to get open, but he (Powell) played brilliantly," said Pitino.
Jack Ingram's baseline jumper just under three minutes later extended the edge to 50-44, but five straight points, capped by Dean's three-pointer, immediately pulled the Cardinals within one point.
However, the Illini took over from there.
Illinois quickly scored 11 straight points, highlighted by a pair of threes from Head, to open up a 12-point cushion. James Augustine's free throw finally culminated the explosion and made it 61-49 with 5:37 left in the game.
The Illini then made it 64-51 on another Head three, but Louisville scored four straight points to climb within single-digits with 3:40 to play.
The Cardinals would not get any closer, though, as Illinois sealed the win at the free throw line down the stretch.
"We got better ball movement, we got it inside," said Weber on his team's play in the second half. "Once you get it inside you can suck them in and now we are getting it to the open shooters."
Illinois got off to a fast start as it scored eight of the first 10 points, but the Cardinals quickly pulled within 10-9 as Myles' basket with 14:46 left in the first half capped the 7-2 run.
Louisville stayed slightly behind over the next several minutes, but finally drew even as O'Bannon's three-pointer tied the score at 22-22 with 6:56 left. The Illini, though, countered as they used a 9-2 flurry to forge ahead by seven points. Head culminated the run with a three-pointer to make it 31-24 with 2:12 remaining in the stanza.
The Cardinals closed out the half with the final four points and went into the locker room trailing 31-28.
Dee Brown had eight points for Illinois, which connected on 6-of-19 tries from three-point range in the first half. The Illini had just one turnover in the stanza, but could not completely capitalize as they made only 38 percent of their shots from the floor.
Dean and Myles both netted seven points for Louisville, which was just 3-of-10 from three-point range. The Cardinals also turned the ball over only once in the half, but struggled from the floor as well as they hit on just 36 percent of their attempts in the opening 20 minutes.
Game Notes
Brown ended with eight points after not scoring a second-half point, while Deron Williams had just five points for Illinois. Augustine ended with six points and 11 boards...The Illini were 27-of-56 from the floor (48 percent) and hit on 12-of-30 three-point tries (40 percent). Louisville was only 21- of-54 from the field and 6-of-20 from behind the arc (30 percent)...Illinois also made the Final Four in 1949, 1951 and 1952. There were just eight teams in the tournament in 1949 and 16 in the field in both 1951 and 1952. The 1989 team lost to eventual national champion Michigan in the semifinals...The Illini improved to 37-25 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and are 12-2 as a No. 1 seed...The Cardinals reached the Final Four in similar fashion as Illinois did when Louisville rallied from a 20-point first-half deficit in last week's regional final against West Virginia, before eventually winning in overtime...The Cardinals also won 33 games in 1980 when the school went 33-3 en route to its first of two national championships...Louisville was the first No. 4 seed to make the national semifinals since Ohio State accomplished the feat in 1999...Pitino became the first men's coach to take three different schools to the Final Four as he also did it with Providence (1987) and Kentucky (1993, 1996, 1997)...Louisville fell to 53-34 all-time in the tournament...Illinois leads the all-time series 3-2 and snapped a two-game losing streak to the Cardinals.
04/02 23:25:39 ET
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