HOUSTON (AP) — Freshman Keaton Wagler scored 25 points and Illinois ended Iowa’s underdog March Madness run by dominating in the frontcourt, beating the Hawkeyes 71-59 on Saturday to advance to the Final Four for the first time since 2005.

This will be the sixth trip to the Final Four for Illinois, which has never won a national title. The Fighting Illini will face either Duke or UConn next weekend in Indianapolis.

The much taller Illini (28-8) outrebounded Iowa 38-21 in the South Region final. David Mirkovic led the way with 12 rebounds.

Coach Brad Underwood’s emphasis on recruiting in Eastern Europe has paid off in this tournament. Tomislav Ivisic of Croatia, who stands 7-foot-1, and his 7-2 twin brother Zvonimir have shined in March.

Andrej Stojakovic, who was born in Greece but whose father is Serbian three-time NBA All-Star Peja Stojakovic, scored 17 points for third-seeded Illinois. His famous father watched proudly as his son punched his ticket to the Final Four, and Wagler’s parents — who met when they played basketball at a junior college in Kansas — cheered wildly throughout for their son, who was named MVP of the region.

Bennett Stirtz scored 24 points for the ninth-seeded Hawkeyes (24-13), who knocked off top-seeded Florida in the second round as part of an impressive run under first-year coach Ben McCollum, a four-time Division II national champion at Northwest Missouri State. Stirtz played for McCollum there, then followed him to Drake and finally Iowa.

The Illini went on an 8-0 run, with four points from Tomislav Ivisic, to take a 58-51 lead with less than five minutes remaining.

Isaia Howard made one of two free throws for Iowa after that, but an alley-oop dunk by Zvonimir Ivisic pushed the lead to 60-52 with about four minutes to go.

Sage Tate hit four consecutive free throws for Iowa to get the Hawkeyes within four with two minutes to go. But Stojakovic added a layup for Illinois before Wagler made two free throws to make it 67-59.

It was the second meeting this season for these Big Ten rivals. Illinois won 75-69 on Jan. 11.

Illinois never led in the first half but took its first lead just after halftime. There were a dozen lead changes before the Illini pulled away.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The San Francisco Giants matched a franchise record Saturday by reaching 20 straight innings without scoring to begin the season, then finally recorded their first run in the third inning against the New York Yankees.

San Francisco had been shut out by New York 7-0 and 3-0 with only four hits over its first two games — the first time that had happened in baseball history to start a season.

Jung Hoo Lee began the third Saturday with a double to right off Will Warren, then Matt Chapman followed with an RBI single, and the crowd cheered wildly as many fans jumped to their feet in obvious relief.

New manager Tony Vitello, promoted from the University of Tennessee despite no professional playing or coaching experience, became the ninth manager in baseball history to be shut out in each of his first two games with a team, and seventh manager to do so in his first two games overall, according to Sportradar.

The 20 consecutive scoreless innings matched the previous franchise mark from 1909, when the Giants were scoreless for 13 innings in their opener and the first seven in Game 2.

The only team ever to get shut out three straight times to open the year was San Diego in 2016, when the Padres were swept by the Dodgers on the way to a 68-94 season.

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Ta’Niya Latson scored 28 points and Raven Johnson added 18 to help top-seed South Carolina beat No. 4 seed Oklahoma 94-68 on Saturday and advance to the Elite Eight of the women’s March Madness tournament.

South Carolina will face the winner of the TCU-Virginia game on Monday night for the chance to go to the Final Four in Phoenix from the Sacramento 4 Regional.

The Gamecocks have advanced to the national semifinals in six of the past eight Final Fours and won three national championships during that stretch. Oklahoma was looking for its first trip to the regional since the 2009-10 season which was the Sonners last time in the Final Four.

The Gamecocks (34-3) jumped out to a strong start behind Latson, who was playing in her first Sweet 16. The senior guard played the first three years of her career at Florida State before coming to South Carolina this season. She scored eight of the teams first 10 points as the Gamecocks went up 10-0.

Johnson scoring nine points as the Gamecocks were up 23-13 after the first quarter.

Oklahoma (26-8) turned the ball over on three of its first four possessions in the second quarter and South Carolina took advantage. Latson’s four-point play with 46 seconds left in the half made it 47-28. The Sooners got a stop on the next possession, but Sahara Williams missed a wide-open layup just before the buzzer.

Latson finished the first half with 18 points and Johnson had 16. Second-team AP All-America Joyce Edwards was scoreless in the opening 20 minutes. It didn’t matter as the Gamecocks had enough offense from Latson and Johnson.

South Carolina got Edwards more involved in the second half as she scored the team’s first four points in the third quarter as the Gamecocks gave Oklahoma no shot at a comeback. Edwards finished with eight points and nine rebounds.

Aaliyah Chavez scored 21 points and Raegan Beers added 14 to lead the Sooners.

The two teams met earlier this season. Oklahoma handed South Carolina its lone regular-season Southeastern Conference loss with a 94-82 overtime victory.

Up next

The Gamecocks don’t have too much history with either TCU or Virginia as a team, but coach Dawn Staley starred for the Cavaliers and led them to three Final Fours in her time as a player. The two teams played in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2018. South Carolina faced TCU two years ago in the regular season and routed the Horned Frogs in Fort Worth, Texas.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic was suspended one game without pay by the NBA for receiving his 16th technical foul of the season, the league announced Saturday.

Doncic, the NBA’s scoring leader, got whistled for a double technical foul during the third quarter of the Lakers’ 116-99 victory over Brooklyn on Friday night.

The Nets’ Ziaire Williams was celebrating an offensive foul called against Doncic by gleefully screaming in Doncic’s personal space. When Doncic reached out to push Williams’ arm, Williams responded with a backhand swipe across Doncic’s face.

Under NBA rules, a player or coach is automatically suspended without pay for one game when he receives his 16th technical foul during the regular season. For every two additional technical fouls during that regular season, they will be automatically suspended without pay for an additional game.

Doncic, who scored 41 points against Brooklyn, will serve his suspension on Monday when the Lakers host the Washington Wizards.

“He was yelling in my face three times,” Doncic said after the game. “I just wanted to get out of there. It’s a double tech, of course. What can I say? I didn’t even talk. I just wanted to get out of there. (The referee) said my push was exaggerated, which (it) was obviously not. I don’t know what else to say.”

Officials reviewed the incident before issuing technical fouls to both players.

Doncic already had a technical rescinded last week after he was whistled for a verbal altercation with Orlando’s Goga Bitadze. The league didn’t announce why it was rescinded, but Doncic said Bitadze insulted his family in Serbian — and Bitadze denied it.

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HOUSTON (AP) — A buzzer malfunction caused a delay — a very loud, very unpleasant delay — of about 10 minutes in the first half of the NCAA Tournament’s South Region final between Iowa and Illinois on Saturday night.

When the buzzer sounded out of a media timeout with 7:43 left in the first half, it kept blaring uninterrupted for about seven minutes. Players stood on the court ready to play for a couple of minutes before both teams started to warm up as the buzzer continued to sound.

It was finally silenced, to cheers from the crowd, but then the main scoreboard and video screen that hangs over the middle of the court went dark.

The game ultimately resumed with the big scoreboard still off. Two smaller scoreboards at each end of the arena were working.

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HOUSTON (AP) — Gary Woodland had to play hard to stay in front Saturday in the Houston Open and he added a pair of birdies late in his round for a 5-under 65 that gave him a one-shot lead over Nicolai Højgaard as he goes for his first win since the 2019 U.S. Open.

Woodland and Højgaard (63) were flawless in the final hour at Memorial Park and created some separation going into Sunday, with no one else closer than five shots.

Woodland has become a popular figure in golf for the way he has handled his recovery from brain surgery in September 2023, and earlier this month opening up on his struggles with post-traumatic syndrome disorder during an emotional interview at The Players Championship.

His golf has looked as good as ever, with full control of his swing and full use of his athletic power.

“I’ve just got to take a deep breath,” Woodland said. “I’ll have a good night ahead of me tonight to recover and rest, and tomorrow just don’t get ahead of yourself. I’m here, I put myself in this position for a reason, so take a deep breath and maintain what I’m doing.”

Woodland was at 18-under 192, the first time he has held the 54-hole lead since that 2019 major title at Pebble Beach. He has been helped by a change in shafts in his irons, noticing he was losing a little control as his speed began to return.

He was particularly strong down the stretch, and he had to be with Højgaard chasing him. Woodland drilled a 2-iron over the water an onto the green at the par-5 16th — one of only five players to hit the green in two — for a two-putt birdie.

His drive on the reachable par-4 17th hit the bunker with such force that it hopped out onto the collar, and he pitched down to 5 feet for another birdie.

Højgaard was right there with him, hitting a nice chip on the 16th for a birdie and getting up-and-down from a bunker on the 17th for another one. The Dane got back into the mix with a 62 on Friday, and he was equally effective on Saturday with his 63. He has made 15 birdies and one eagle the last two rounds.

Defending champion Min Woo Lee (67) and Michael Thorbjornsen (66) were five shots behind. Sunday is big for Thorbjornsen, who is No. 56 in the world. The top 50 after this week earn Masters invitations, and the Massachusetts native likely needs no better than eighth place.

Højgaard is still not in the Masters, though at No. 47 he is virtually a lock to stay in the top 50 barring a curious chain of events at Memorial Park.

Woodland would need nothing short of a victory to get back to the Masters, even a perk such as that is secondary considering all he has gone through.

The surgery was to remove a big part of a lesion that was producing unfounded fears of dying. He returned to the PGA Tour at the start of 2024, but only recently did he share struggles with PTSD, how he would begin crying in the middle of the round and sometimes hide in the bathroom.

To share that publicly was an enormous relief for Woodland, who said earlier this week he felt “1,000 pounds lighter.”

Now the focus turns toward winning the Houston, where he came close last year as a runner-up. Woodland leads the field in approach to the green, and he is second in putting — a slightly new putter has helped with alignment.

Facing him will be Højgaard, who made his Ryder Cup debut in 2023 for Europe. His identical twin, Rasmus, already has qualified for the Masters.

The 25-year-old Dane has three wins on the European tour, including the DP World Tour Championship at the end of 2023. He has yet to win on the PGA Tour.

“You know it’s going to be a grind, you know it’s going to come down to potentially the last few holes anyway,” he said. “So you’ve just got to stay in the fight and play your best and do your best and then let’s see where we end up.”

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