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Illinois forward Roger Powell Jr. raised his index finger toward the roof of the Edward Jones Dome in the final seconds of the Fighting Illini’s 72-57 semifinal victory over Louisville in the Final Four on Saturday.

Yes, Illinois is still No. 1, and this time it is because Powell -- a licensed Pentecostal minister whose teammates call him “the Rev” -- was the answer to quietly uttered prayers.

“I was pointing to Jesus. That’s what I was doing. I was just thinking I was really thankful,” said Powell, who scored 18 of his 20 points in the second half and provided the first signature play of this Final Four when he took a three-point shot from the top of the key and missed, then sprinted down the lane to grab the rebound off the rim and slam the ball home.

“You don’t really see that often, shooting it from ‘three,’ then running all the way in there and dunking it,” teammate James Augustine said.

Powell, a 6-foot-6 forward, couldn’t quite explain it himself.

“On that tip dunk, I just knew it was going to come off like that,” he said. “I don’t know why, I just knew it.”

It was something difficult to express, much like the feeling the Illini now seem to have that they are a team destined to win the school’s first men’s basketball national championship Monday when they play North Carolina for the NCAA title.

“We put April 4 on the board six, seven weeks ago, and we are playing April 4 for the national championship,” Coach Bruce Weber said.

Ranked No. 1 for the final 15 weeks of the season and undefeated until a one-point loss to Ohio State on a three-point basket in the final game of the regular season, the 37-1 Illini are one victory from becoming the first one-loss team to win the NCAA title since North Carolina State in 1974. The last once-beaten team to reach the championship game was Duke in 1999, when the Blue Devils were upset by Connecticut in the final.

Now it’s the Illini’s turn to try.

“They’re a great team,” Louisville Coach Rick Pitino said. “They’re a three-point shot away from being without blemishes.

“I don’t know if they necessarily have the greatest talent I’ve seen in a Final Four, but they’re the best team I’ve seen in some time.”

The Illinois tag-team of athletes took turns scuttling Louisville, with Powell and guard Luther Head leading a second-half surge that took Illinois from trailing by two to leading by 13.

Powell started it with a three-point basket, then made his eye-popping play for a three-point lead, starting a stretch in which he scored 12 of the Illini’s first 14 points after halftime.

Head took over after that, making four three-point baskets in an eight-minute stretch, many of them on the run or with defenders flying at him after Louisville had to abandon what had been an effective 2-3 zone.

Head made six of 11 three-point attempts, finishing with 20 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals. The Illini’s other two star guards, Dee Brown and Deron Williams, were held to single digits as Illinois flailed away from long distance at times, but made only 12 of 30 three-point attemtps.

Yet Williams, the player Weber calls the foundation of the team, was a dominant force despite scoring only five points.

“The true basketball people understand how good he is, whether it’s NBA scouts or opponents,” Weber said. “He makes our team go.”

Williams had nine assists, but most important, handled most of the defense on Louisville star Francisco Garcia, who went two for 10 and scored only four points.

“It was a tough night,” Garcia said. “They play good, solid man-to-man D.”

Louisville’s Taquan Dean and Larry O’Bannon struggled as well, as the Cardinals’ trio of guards went four for 18 from three-point range.

The most effective Louisville (33-5) player was Ellis Myles, a powerful forward from Compton Centennial High who had 17 points, seven rebounds, two assists, three blocks and two steals and made eight of 12 shots.

But his counterpart, Powell, took over after playing only five minutes in the first half because of foul trouble.

“Roger Powell, the whole second half, he just caught fire. That really was the difference in the game,” Myles said. “Then after he caught fire, Luther Head caught fire.”

Head and Powell have huddled together at other times in their careers, as Powell prayed for Head when he was involved in a burglary before last season for which he was never charged, and even over Head’s recent sore hamstring. Powell said he prayed at halftime, too, “for the Lord to really give us strength, like I always do,” he said.

“The way he talks to people makes you feel like he cares,” Head said of Powell, who occasionally preaches at Mt. Zion Full Gospel Tabernacle in his home town of Joliet, Ill.

“To see him shine the way he did today, it makes you feel good,” Head said.