Taquan Dean and Larry O’Bannon picked Garcia up last time, but couldn’t do it again. Dean never found his touch, going 4-for-15 and only making two 3-pointers as part of a 12-point night. O’Bannon went 4-for-10 for 12 points.

Forward Ellis Myles led the Cardinals with 17 points, but that was the problem: Louisville simply doesn’t win much when it has to look to its forwards for the bulk of the scoring.

“It was difficult,” Pitino said. “We didn’t pitch a perfect game, but we hung in there as long as we could. We faulted to a better basketball team.”

Pitino put on his usual show — stomping, screaming, trying to coax more out of a team that has largely been regarded as an overmatched underdog on many of its stops this year.

But unlike last week, when the Cardinals rallied from 20 points down for a win over West Virginia and the eighth trip to the Final Four in program history, there was no adjustment Pitino could make.

His team was getting beaten on the boards — 38-26 — and in the end, Illinois had too many good players in too many spots for the Cardinals to overcome.

“Being disappointed is when you get knocked out in the first round,” said Pitino, coaching in his fifth Final Four. “When you go to the Final Four, if there’s any disappointment, then you can’t appreciate the game as you should.”

After O’Bannon scored five straight to open the second half and give Louisville its only lead, Powell spotted up for a 3-pointer to grab the lead back. On the next possession, he shot an open 3, which he missed, but grabbed the rebound himself for a two-handed jam.

“It was just bouncing my way,” Powell explained.

He mixed lay-ups, short, spinning jumpers, another 3-pointer and one other putback of a teammate’s miss.

Leading 64-55 and with both teams unable to score for nearly two minutes, it was Powell who layed in another teammate’s miss to make it 66-55 with 2:30 left and begin the celebration.

When the buzzer sounded, several Illini stuck their forefingers in the air and pointed toward the crowd — needing one more win to fashion the perfect ending to what Weber has called a “fairytale season.”

“I was excited when ... it got under a minute,” Weber said. “I was excited because I knew we were in the championship game, and that’s been our goal.”

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