Illinois punches ticket to Final Four for 1st time in 21 years with 71-59 win over Iowa

Colleen Kane, Chicago Tribune on Mar 28, 2026

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HOUSTON — As Illinois fans screamed and clapped Saturday night at the Toyota Center, the hugging began. Illinois coach Brad Underwood and his assistants on the bench. Keaton Wagler, still holding the ball, and David Mirković. The rest of the Illini players joined in.

With a 71-59 win over Iowa in the South Region final of the NCAA Tournament, the Illini completed a task that hasn’t been done in 21 years — they made the Final Four.

The Illini overcame a 10-point first-half deficit. They survived a five-minute stoppage in play because of an arena horn malfunction. They weathered a big performance from Iowa star guard Bennett Stirtz.

And now, they are headed to the Final Four for the first time since the 2005 run to the national championship game. It will be Illinois’ sixth Final Four appearance after also making it in 2005, 1989, 1952, 1951 and 1949.

Wagler had 25 points and three assists, and Andre Stojaković had 17 points and five rebounds to fuel the victory. Stirtz scored 24 points for Iowa.

Illinois entered the season with national championship hopes behind the returns of Kylan Boswell, Tomislav Ivišić, Ben Humrichous and Jake Davis and the additions of Andrej Stojaković, Wagler, Mirković and Zvonimir Ivišić.

Even during the Illini’s stumbles along the way in the regular season — big losses to Connecticut and Michigan and a string of overtime losses in late February — Underwood reiterated his faith in his team to reach that goal. Now, Illinois is one of four teams to advance to the final weekend, two wins from the ultimate goal.

Illinois beat No. 14 seed Penn, No. 11 seed VCU, No. 2 seed Houston and the Hawkeyes in the NCAA Tournament to make it. They advance to next Saturday’s national semifinal in Indianapolis and will play the winner of the Duke-Connecticut game in the East Region final, which will be played Sunday.

The Illini victory ended an improbable NCAA Tournament run by No. 9 seed Iowa, which lost six of their final eight regular-season games to finish the Big Ten season 10-10.

The Hawkeyes had to knock off No. 8 seed Clemson, top seed and defending national champion Florida and No. 4 seed Nebraska just to make it to the Elite Eight. But Illinois turned it on in late in the second half to pull off the victory.

Illinois didn’t take a lead until Mirković made a layup and free throw to make it 33-32 with 18:36 to play in the second half. The game went back-and-forth from there.

The Illini struggled to make a significant run for most of the second half, despite opportunities. But they put together a 10-1 run with 4:06 to play, starting with two Mirković free throws and two baskets inside by Tomislav Ivišić.

The second Ivišić basket gave the Illini their biggest lead to that point, 56-51, and started the crowd chanting I-L-L. A Wagler drive and a Zvonimir Ivišić dunk also fueled the run.

Tomislav fouled out with 2 minutes to play and the Illini up by six. Illinois went with a smaller lineup, keeping Zvonimir on the bench, but still pulled away.

Iowa led 32-28 at halftime after a strong shooting performance, led by Stirtz. The Illini shot 37% from the field, including going 1 for 8 from 3-point range in the half. Iowa shot 57%, including 6 for 12 from 3-point range. Stirtz had 15 points on 6-for-9 shooting.

Iowa jumped to a 12-2 lead, making 5 of 6 shots to start, while the Illini made 1 of 5 and committed two turnovers in the first 4:30.

Illinois cut it to 12-11 before Stirtz made an off-balance 3-pointer with Stojaković’s hand in his face. Stirtz had 10 of Iowa’s first 17 points, making several tough shots.

For about five minutes in the middle of the first half, with Iowa leading 22-20, play was stopped because the arena’s horn wouldn’t turn off. As the piercing sound continued, Underwood spoke with officials and Illinois and Iowa players stood on the court, looking at the scorers table, dumbfounded.

It carried on so long that officials had both teams warm up while staff tried to fix it. Eventually, they turned it off, turning instead to a physical airhorn. The center-court video board also was turned off in the solution because it was connected to the horn.

Stirtz made the first two baskets out of the break, on a drive and a 3-pointer. Illinois cut Iowa’s lead to one and two points late in the first half but couldn’t pull even, missing out on opportunities to capitalize on back-to-back Iowa turnovers.

They did in the second half to pull off the victory and set off the celebration.

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