LOS ANGELES — The Alabama Crimson Tide became the first team in this year's tournament to defeat a No. 1 seed, beating the North Carolina Tar Heels 89-87 on Thursday night in the West Region.
Grant Nelson converted the go-ahead three-point play with 38 seconds left, allowing Alabama (24-11) to punch their ticket to the Elite Eight for just the second time in school history.
“These guys are bringing their competitive side out at the right time,” Tide coach Nate Oats said. “You want to be peaking in March and we’re peaking in March.”
Nelson finished the night with a season-high 24 points — 19 of which came in the second half — and he blocked RJ Davis' attempt at a tying layup after giving Alabama the lead. He had 12 boards and five blocks.
Alabama's leading scorer Mark Sears finished 18 points, Rylan Griffen added 19 points, and Aaron Estrada also scored 19.
The Tide will face the sixth-seeded Clemson Tigers on Saturday for a trip to the Final Four. The Tigers took down second-seeded Arizona 77-72 in the first semifinal at Crypto.com Arena.
Mark Sears, Alabama's leading scorer this season, finished with 18 points after making just two field goals in the second half when Nelson dominated.
North Carolina used a 20-7 run to end the first half and take a 54-46 lead at the break, but the Tide got nine of their first 13 points from Nelson and Sam Walters to begin the second half, and took a 59-57 lead.
Things got worse for the Tar Heels, as Bacot found himself in foul trouble just five minutes in.
Nelson, Estrada, and Griffen teamed up to score 21 of Alabama's next 23, giving the Tide an 82-77 lead. Nelson scored seven-straight during that stretch, capped off by a 3-pointer.
Carolina scored eight in a row, including six straight by Davis, to take its last lead, 85-82.
Nelson blocked Davis' shot with 25 seonds left, causing Davis to furiously dribble around before missing a layup and forcing a shot-clock violation on the Tar Heels with 8 seconds left. The Tar Heels were forced to foul, sending Nelson to the line and calmly sank both shots for an 89-85 lead.
Armando Bacot scored inside with 1 second remaining on the clock, making it a two-point game. North Carolina fouled Nelson again with 0.9 seconds left. And despite missing both attempts, time expired on the top-seed Tar Heels ending their bid for a seventh national title.
Bacot finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds in his final game for UNC (29-8). Cormac Ryan added 17 points and made five 3-pointers and Davis chipped in 16 points.
Illinois 72, Iowa State 69
BOSTON — Terrence Shannon Jr. scored 29 points and the Illinois Fighting Illini reached the Elite Eight for the first time since 2005, with a 72-69 victory over the No. 2 seed Iowa State Cyclones in an East Region semifinal on Thursday night.
For the first two rounds, Illinois' offense carried them. But last night it was a solid defensive effort that made the difference.
The third-seeded Illini (29-8), who never trailed. Shannon capped off the night with a steal and breakaway dunk in the closing seconds and later hit two free throws to finish off the second-seeded Cyclones (29-8).
“When you face the No. 1 defense, you know they’re not No. 1 because they’re soft or they lack effort," Illini coach Brad Underwood said. “I also knew they’d come out and punch or counterpunch, and they did that.”
Despite the Fighting Illini shooting only 42% from the field, they were able to hold Iowa State to 39% shooting and forced nine turnovers.
Illinois will now face defending champion UConn on Saturday for a trip to the Final Four. The overall No. 1 seeded Huskies defeated San Diego State 82-52 in the first East semifinal game.
Iowa State struggled from the field in the first half, trailing 36-26 at the break. However, they found their touch after halftime. A floater from Keshon Gilbert made it 51-49 with 9:46 remaining.
Then Gilbert got a steal — one of Iowa State’s 11 — and a breakaway layup to potentially tie it up, but his attempt rolled off the rim.
Iowa State missed out on another chance to tie it up, this time leading to a driving layup by Illinois’ Marcus Domask, who was fouled on the score and completed a three-point play to make it 56-51.
And when Iowa State managed to get within three a couple possessions later, Domask had an answer again, knocking down a 3 to push the Illini’s lead back to 62-56.
The Cyclones managed to whittle down Illinois' lead to 68-64 with under a minute to play. But a turnover by Milan Momcilovic found its way to Shannon, who took it in a for a two-handed slam with 24 seconds left.
Jones was fouled on a 3-point attempt and made all three free throws to make it 70-67, but Shannon calmly made two foul shots with 6 seconds left to put the game away.
Coleman Hawkins was the only other player in double figures for Illinois, scoring 12 points.
Curtis Jones scored 26 points and Gilbert had 14 for Iowa State.
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