Illinois finally pulls away from Iowa late to reach first Final Four since 2005, end Hawkeyes' NCAA tournament run
Iowa's dream run through the NCAA tournament has come to an end.
Ben McCollum’s dream run through the NCAA tournament is over. No. 3 Illinois finally pulled away from the Hawkeyes late in the second half on Saturday night in their Elite Eight matchup to grab a 71-59 win at the Toyota Center in Houston.
That officially secured the Illini their first trip to the Final Four since 2005, when they fell in the national title game to North Carolina. The Illini will now await either No. 1 Duke or No.
2 UConn in the Final Four next weekend in Indianapolis. Iowa survives horn delay in first half The Hawkeyes came out right away and opened the game on a 12-2 run, which put Illinois down by its largest deficit of the tournament so far in the first few minutes of the contest. But the game came to a screeching halt midway through the period after the buzzer inside the Toyota Center wouldn’t shut off.
Play stopped for 11 minutes in total , and both teams eventually came back out onto the floor running warm-up drills while the buzzer annoyed fans throughout the Houston arena. "Surely there's a way to unplug this -- surely there's a horn expert somewhere in this building! " Kevin Harlan on the call as an issue with the horn gets worked on.