The South Regional final between the No. 3 seed Illinois Fighting Illini and the No. 9 seed Iowa Hawkeyes on Saturday night was delayed 11 minutes after the buzzer malfunctioned. Both teams passed the time with warm-up shots, and an airhorn was used instead.
While the second half unfolded at the Toyota Center in Houston, NCAA SVP Dan Gavitt released a statement addressing the buzzer malfunction.
“An unfortunate equipment malfunction caused an 11-minute delay in today’s South Regional championship game between Illinois and Iowa,” Gavitt said in the statement. “With 7:43 remaining in the first half, the scoreboard control system froze, which also caused the integrated horn to freeze as well, leading to the horn going off for approximately seven minutes.
“To silence the horn, building personnel had to shut down the main-center hung videoboard, which is connected to the horn. During the delay, teams were allowed to warm up on the court. The game clock and shot clock k were not affected, and a manual horn is being used for the remainder of the game. There was an attempt to reset the center-hung videoboard at halftime, but the issue could not be resolved.”
At the time of the stoppage, Iowa held a slim 22-20 lead, and later grew it to 27-22 immediately after the play resumed.
Regardless of the interruption, Illinois regained control in the second half. The Illini trailed 32-28 at halftime but outscored the Hawkeyes 43-27 over the final 20 minutes to secure a 71-59 victory. Freshman Keaton Wagler led all scorers with 25 points on 8-of-17 shooting. Off the bench, Andrej Stojakovic scored 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting, while David Mirkovic ended up with nine points and 12 rebounds.
The win sends Illinois to its first Final Four since 2005, where it will face the winner of Duke vs. UConn. The program is still chasing its first national championship after falling in the 2005 title game.
