USA – NCAA Final Four set after wins by Heels, Spartans, Huskies and Wildcats

BOSTON (NCAA) – North Carolina, Michigan State, the University of Connecticut and Villanova are all headed to the Motor City for the NCAA Tournament Final Four after winning their respective games over the weekend.

The game that could go down as the most exciting of the tournament was the Big East battle on Saturday in Boston between Villanova and number one seed Pitt in the Elite Eight.

Pittsburgh, who only narrowly escaped 60-55 in their Sweet 16 clash against Xavier, saw their luck run out against red-hot Nova who claimed a 78-76 victory.

Levance Fields, the hero of Pitt’s win over Xavier, made two free throws with less than six seconds remaining to knot the contest at 76-76.

Reggie Redding, who had just thrown the ball away while attempting a full-court pass on Villanova’s previous inbounds play, this time connected with teammate Dante Cunningham at midcourt.

Cunningham laid the ball off to Scottie Reynolds, who streaked into the lane before making a floater in traffic for the go-ahead basket.

"In that situation, you have four dribbles and a shot,” Reynolds said.

“That's five seconds. All that goes in your head. That's why we practice that every day in practice so we can make an instinct play. We did that. It worked tonight. Only has to work once."

A half-second remained.

After a timeout, Fields caught an inbounds pass, took one dribble and heaved a potential-game winning attempt from three-quarters length of the court but missed.

Villanova will now meet North Carolina in the Semi-Finals after Roy Williams’ Tar Heels cruised past Oklahoma 72-60.

The leading National Player of the Year candidate Blake Griffin scored 23 points and grabbed 16 rebounds for the Sooners but his production wasn’t nearly enough to beat the balanced Tar Heels who got 19 points from guard Ty Lawson and 18 from Danny Green.

On Saturday, the UConn Huskies were made to sweat but they finally overcame upset-minded Missouri 82-75.

Electric guard Kemba Walker had 23 points for the Huskies, who will now take on Michigan State following the Spartans’ surprisingly easy 64-52 triumph over Louisville.

Michigan State is based in Lansing so they should enjoy home advantage with the Final Four at Detroit’s Ford Field.

Goran Suton, who hails from Bosnia and Herzegovina, scored 19 points and hauled in 10 rebounds for the Spartans.

FIBA