Illinois knocks off Iowa to reach Final Four after buzzer malfunction delay

For the archetypal clip successful much than 2 decades, the Illinois men's hoops squad volition inactive beryllium dancing erstwhile the Final Four tips off.

Iowa’s underdog tally successful the NCAA Tournament ended Saturday with a 71-59 nonaccomplishment to a ascendant Illinois team. Before Illinois could chopped down the nets astatine Houston’s Toyota Center, a buzzer malfunction caused a loud, astir 10-minute delay.

The buzzer initially sounded signaling the extremity of a media timeout with conscionable nether 8 minutes remaining successful the archetypal half. The horn continued blaring for astir different 7 minutes.

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A referee talks with the scorer's array during an official's timeout owed to a breached changeable timepiece horn during the archetypal fractional of an Elite Eight crippled betwixt Iowa and Illinois successful the NCAA Tournament Saturday, March 28, 2026, successful Houston, Texas. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Players stood connected the tribunal acceptable to play for a mates of minutes earlier some teams started to lukewarm up arsenic the buzzer continued to sound.

It was yet silenced, to cheers from the crowd, but past the main scoreboard and video surface that hangs implicit the mediate of the tribunal went dark.

The crippled yet resumed with the large scoreboard inactive off. Two smaller scoreboards astatine each extremity of the arena were working.

Freshman defender Keaton Wagler scored 25 points to assistance unafraid Illinois' archetypal Final Four berth since 2005.

Keaton Wagler (23) of the Illinois Fighting Illini dribbles against Isaia Howard (23) of the Iowa Hawkeyes during the archetypal fractional successful the Elite Eight of the 2026 NCAA Tournament astatine Toyota Center March 28, 2026, successful Houston, Texas.  (Alex Slitz/Getty Images)

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This volition beryllium the sixth wide travel to the Final Four for Illinois, which has ne'er won a nationalist title. The Fighting Illini volition look either Duke oregon UConn adjacent week successful Indianapolis.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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