Illini reach Final Four with unlikely 90-89 OT win

ROSEMONT, Ill. -- Keep the bus running and point it toward St. Louis. Thanks to a jaw-dropping comeback, Illinois' journey has another leg left: the Final Four.

With Deron Williams leading the way, the Illini staged an electrifying and improbable rally to force overtime and then held on to beat Arizona 90-89 Saturday night to win the Chicago Regional.

Trailing 75-60 with four minutes left, Illinois showed why it was No. 1 most of the season.

"It's heart man, it's just heart," Illinois' Dee Brown said. "The whole time I was saying 'If it was meant to be, it was meant to be.' And I guess it was meant to be that we go to the Final Four."

The Illini (36-1), who've been able to drive to their tournament sites in Indianapolis and suburban Chicago so far, can keep on busing.

In St. Louis, they will play Louisville (33-4), which rallied from a 20-point deficit Saturday to beat West Virginia 93-85 in overtime and take the Albuquerque Regional.

The last time two regional final games went into overtime in the same year was 1992 when Michigan beat Ohio State, and Duke eliminated Kentucky.

Williams tied this game and capped a stunning 20-5 run by hitting a 3-pointer with 38 seconds left in regulation, making it 80-80.

Arizona (30-7) went up by 15 points with four minutes to go after an 18-6 spurt that momentarily silenced a large, orange-clad partisan crowd.

But the Illini didn't play as if it was over. And it wasn't.

Illinois, whose previous largest deficit this season was nine -- in another victory -- made a final run. It was a great one, and the crowd went wild.

Luther Head hit a 3-pointer, Brown made a basket in the lane, Head scored after a steal, Williams drove for a basket and then made a steal and fed Brown for another basket with 45 seconds left.

After Jack Ingram deflected an inbounds pass, Williams hit a 3-pointer to tie it with 38 seconds to go.

Salim Stoudamire, the hero of Arizona's semifinal win over Oklahoma State with a last-second game-winner, dribbled the clock down and then passed the ball to Jawann McClellan. He missed but Stoudamire came up with a loose ball, only to have his shot blocked by Head.

Williams hit two more 3-pointers in overtime, but Illinois' victory wasn't secured until Arizona's Hassan Adams, who'd scored five points to get the Wildcats within a point, missed a rushed shot just before the final buzzer.

Williams said the Illini simply didn't think it was time to give up.

"I'm trying to tell my teammates out on the floor 'This game's not over. There's still some time, we can still get it down, chip away,"' Williams said. "We ended up getting the momentum, the crowd into it and we were able to take the game over."

Illinois players swarmed the floor in celebration of the school's first Final Four trip since 1989.

"We just played very hard down the stretch," Brown said. "Deron Williams, the best guard in America, came through, made a lot of great plays. In the huddle we just said we aren't gong to lose this game."

Williams opened overtime with a 3-pointer, Channing Frye had two baskets to give the Wildcats a one-point lead but Roger Powell's dunk gave the advantage back to Illinois.

Williams then hit another 3-pointer with just over two minutes left to make it 88-84, and when Head stole a pass and sprinted for a layup, the Illini were up six.

But Adams converted a three-point play with 1:33 remaining and then a follow-up basket to make it 90-89.

After a driving miss by Head with 19 seconds left, Arizona took a final timeout with 11.8 seconds remaining to set up a potential winning shot.

Mustafa Shakur passed to Adams but his jumper was way off and Illinois' celebration had begun.

"It's extremely hard. ... My disappointment is for the team," Arizona coach Lute Olson said. "I'm disappointed we didn't reach one of our goals. I wish we could have closed it out."

Williams, a junior who might leave for the NBA, finished with 22 points, hitting five 3-pointers, and had 10 assists. Head, playing with a sore hamstring, added 20.

Stoudamire had a miserable game, making just 2 of 13 shots -- 1-of-7 on 3-pointers -- and scoring just nine points, his chance of going to the Final Four for the first time as a senior erased.

Frye was a force all night and finished with 24 points, 12 rebounds and six blocked shots. His 3-pointer with 6:03 left in regulation was the last field goal the Wildcats scored in regulation.

Adams scored 21 on 9-of-13 shooting.