Marching on: No. 1-ranked Illini just one win away from goal

ST. LOUIS — Staring into the sea of orange in the stands, the Illinois players raised their forefingers high above their heads. The No. 1 team in the country needs just one more win, and 100 years of waiting for a championship will be over.

Roger Powell Jr. and Luther Head scored 20 points apiece and sparked the Illini to a 72-57 win over Louisville on Saturday, a semifinal success that made the best season in a century of Illini basketball that much better.

"We put April 4 on the board six weeks ago, and we are playing April 4 in the national championship," coach Bruce Weber said. "We are very excited."

With the victory, the Illini (37-1) tied the single-season NCAA record for wins and kept the coach's magical bus ride going straight through the title game Monday against either North Carolina or Michigan State.

The Illini, ranked first in the country since December, got the tough test they expected from the Cardinals (33-5) and Rick Pitino, who made history by taking his third different program to the Final Four.

But Pitino and the Cardinals are going home, thanks to the scoring of Powell and Head and a defensive effort from everyone that helped the Illini shut down Francisco Garcia and pull away in the second half.

"I think the key, the first key, was the defense," Weber said.

A close second was the shooting of Powell and Head.

After Louisville took its only lead of the game, 33-31, early in the second, Powell scored nine straight points for Illinois to grab back the lead and establish the Illini's dominance inside.

A little later, with a 50-49 lead, Powell sandwiched a layup and a jumper around two 3-pointers by Head as part of an 11-0 run that made the deficit too big to overcome.

Head made his first four 3-point attempts during the second-half streak. Powell wound up just four points short of his career high despite playing only five minutes in the first half because of foul trouble.

"He went through a stretch where he just took the game in his hands and he just took on the scoring," Head said.

This felt a lot like a home game for the Illini, whose "Orange Krush" fan base has followed them around this tournament when they played in Indianapolis, Chicago and now St. Louis — all just a bus ride away.