Illinois knocks off Houston to advance to March Madness Elite Eight

HOUSTON — David Mirkovic had 14 points and 10 rebounds, and third-seeded Illinois flexed its defensive muscles to eliminate last year’s national runner-up from the NCAA Tournament, beating Houston 65-55 in the South Region semifinals on Thursday night. Next up is a meeting Saturday with ninth-seeded Iowa to see which Big Ten team will advance to the Final Four. It will be the 11th Elite Eight appearance for Illinois (27-8) and its second in three seasons under Brad Underwood. In the Sweet 16 for a seventh consecutive time, the second-seeded Cougars (30-7) were thrilled to be playing a game just over two miles from their campus. But their poor shooting gave Houston fans little to cheer about and delighted the orange-clad Illini faithful who made the long trip to Texas. David Mirkovic“At the beginning of the game Houston fans were a little louder, who had 14 points and 10 reboundsbut as game was going, drives on Chris Cenac Jr(our fans) started being louder in their city,” Mirkovic said. during Illinois“So it’ 65-55 Sweet 16 win over Houston on March 26s just really important for us, 2026I would say just like a wind to our back. Maria Lysaker-Imagn ImagesThey pushed us and thanks for them.” Star freshman point guard Kingston Flemings, who is expected to be an NBA lottery pick, had 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting and Milos Uzan made just 2 of 11 shots. But they were far from the only Cougars who struggled offensively. The team shot just 34% in its lowest-scoring game of the season. Underwood was asked about his team’s defensive performance. “I think it’s a mental focus,” he said. “We’ve been very good at times defensively. It’s just sustaining it. We’ve got very capable defenders, we’ve got size and length, and we just got to make shots difficult.” Illinois finished well under the 84.7 points a game it averaged entering Thursday. But its offense was still plenty powerful enough to send Houston back to its nearby campus. Keaton Wagler had 13 points and 12 rebounds for the Illini, and Andrej Stojakovic — with his dad, three-time NBA All-Star Peja Stojakovic, in the stands — also scored 13. By the time the final seconds ticked off the clock, many Houston fans had cleared out and the Illinois supporters stood and cheered as their team celebrated. David Mirkovic, who had 14 points and 10 rebounds, drives on Chris Cenac Jr. during Illinois’ 65-55 Sweet 16 win over Houston on March 26, 2026. Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images “I was proud of our kids’ effort,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. “We just didn’t play good enough.” The Illini were up by one early in the second half when they broke it open with a 17-0 run for a 44-26 lead with about 12 minutes left. Jake Davis scored five points during the burst, including a 3-pointer, and Mirkovic and Ben Humrichous capped it with consecutive 3s. The Cougars missed seven consecutive shots as Illinois built its lead. When Uzan finally ended Houston’s drought with a 3-pointer with 11:20 left, it had been almost seven minutes since the team had scored. “We were getting stops and we were limiting them to one shot, and to tough shots as well,” Wagler said. “Making them shoot tough middies or contested at the rim, 3-pointers, all of that, and then we were going in and grabbing the rebound and offensively we were getting the shots that we wanted, we were knocking them down.” Consecutive 3-pointer by Chase McCarty got Houston within nine with about six minutes left. But Wagler and Tomislav Ivisic made 3-pointers to lead an 8-0 run that extended the lead to 58-41. Illinois gets the rebounding it needed Wagler, the Big Ten freshman of the year, shot 4 of 14 from the field but led the team in rebounds. “Coaches were telling us before the game: ‘It’s going to be a guard game to get rebounds. We need 10-plus out of the guards,’” he said. “So I took that challenge on. I went in there, tried to play as tough as I could, not let them get any second-chance rebounds. I went in there and tried to get every rebound I could.” Uzan thought the rebounding of Wagler and Illinois’ other guards was a key to the game. “That’s what hurt us, defensive rebounding from the guards,” he said.