Illinois lost to UConn in a Final Four game in the NCAA men's basketball March Madness tournament Saturday in Indianapolis.

The final score was 71-62.

The video in the player above is from an earlier report.

This is a breaking news update. The following is from an earlier report.

There was game time focus for the Fighting Illini and their fans Saturday evening

The University of Illinois team is making their first March Madness Final Four appearance in 21 years.

The party started early for fans in Indianapolis, where the game against the UConn Huskies was set to tip off at 5:09 p.m.

Meanwhile, former players, fans and students on campus in Champaign, Illinois said the anticipation is high.

With the Illini band and cheerleaders leading the way, the Fighting Illini nation at Lucas Oil Stadium was pumped up. While there may be four schools there Saturday, Illinois was taking it over.

"It's like a home game. Everybody's wearing orange, and Indianapolis feels like Champaign to me," said Brad Lane with the Chicago Illini Club.

University of Illinois fans flooded Indianapolis for their Final Four March Madness game against UConn.

There seemed to be an endless line of orange-clad Illinois fans walking into pre-parties before the main event at Lucas Oil Stadium.

"We have by far the most amount of fans here from any team," said Matty Kramer with The Boardroom Podcast.

Tracy Abrams played and graduated in 2017.

"We never got to do this," Abrams said. "Just to be here supporting these guys, I'm with it. I'm all in!"

Marcus Griffin played and graduated in 2001.

"Just for all the players that came before," Griffin said. "This is all we ever wanted to see, wanted to see coach and the players get to a national championship."

Of course they need to beat UConn in order to get to that national championship game on Monday night. Almost all the Illinois fans ABC7 talked to in Indianapolis say they are planning on being there Monday night as well.

Final Four March Madness watch parties were sold on the University of Illinois campus in Champaign.

Excitement was also building on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

An Illini Union watch party got underway Saturday afternoon, where eager fans were hoping for a win.

"It's history in the making, since 2005," U of I alum Dwayne Banks, Jr. said. "It's crazy, and it's crazy to see."

Students and alumni gathered in the Illini Union to, hopefully, witness the Fighting Illini basketball team continue its historic winning streak in the Final Four.

"Didn't really see this coming at the start of the tournament, but I mean, we've just been rolling," U of I sophomore student Vivin Anand said.

"It's just great to have an ongoing legacy of Illini just bleeding orange and blue with everybody," U of I class of 1989 alum Lori Nixon said.

"We're old enough that we've seen the Flying Illini in action. We had season tickets back in the day, and this is a big moment," U of I class of 1989 alum Bruce Nixon said.

For most students, they weren't even born the last time the team made it to the Final Four in 2005.

"It's something we've never seen before," U of I sophomore student Ayan Bhakta said. "We've been here for two years. There hasn't been a win, like the Elite Eight. And, we're just going to keep going."

The hype behind the team is palpable beyond campus, too.

ABC7 saw lines stretching out of nearby bars, like Legends , where watch parties were sold out, costing, at some places, $100 or more a ticket. And even then, a ticket might not guarantee a spot inside.

"We're trying to get in. So, we're at the end of the line, like you said, so hopefully we make it in there," U of I alum Giovanni Guzman said. "It's time to celebrate and make sure that we can, at least, enjoy a great game and make some history, too. Let's go! U of I, let's go!"

After every win, the tradition on campus is for everyone to gather outside the Illini Union at the Alma Mater statue. They're hoping the party returns there later Saturday night.

RELATED |March Madness: Illinois team, fans make final preparations for Final Four game in Indianapolis

Illinois coach Brad Underwood doesn't need any reminders about what happened the last two times his team faced UConn.

He can just plug in the game tapes, rewind them and watch them again. Back in November, the Huskies led wire-to-wire in a 74-61 victory. Two years ago in the Elite Eight, UConn used a 30-0 run en route to a 77-52 victory on the way to a second straight national championship.

There's nothing the Fighting Illini can do to change those results now, but they do believe they can change the course of this series Saturday when they face UConn in their first Final Four clash in more than two decades.

"I've said all along, you just have to keep knocking on the door and our opportunities were going to come," Underwood said in Indianapolis when asked about the impact of the 2024 postseason loss. "We learned a lot from that game. I thought that team was a Final Four team that just happened to play a damn good basketball team in the Elite Eight, so we didn't get there. But I think we grew from that from the standpoint of understanding how hard it is, what that looks like."

Underwood took those lessons, revised his plan and started plotting how to get the Fighting Illini (28-8) to their first Final Four since 2005. Now, after 39 seasons in the coaching ranks, Underwood has finally made it here in March Madness for the first time.

For Illinois, it's a new experience, too. The Illini last reached the national semifinals during their 2005 runner-up finish. The obstacle again will be getting past UConn (33-5).

But this looks like a very different matchup than this season's previous meeting with two more physical, more balanced and more experienced teams squaring off.

Huskies coach Dan Hurley has built his reputation on tough players eager to the dirty work and this group is more of the same.

Center Tarris Reed Jr. earned the East Region's Most Outstanding Player award by scoring 21.7 points and grabbing 13.5 rebounds in tourney wins over Furman, UCLA, Michigan State and Duke- including 31 points and 27 rebounds in Round 1.

Huskies Forward Alex Karaban already holds school records for most games played (149), most wins (125), most starts (148) and most 3-pointers (288) and now needs two more tourney wins to push his March Madness career mark to 19-1. That would send him past Hurley's brother, Bobby, for second all-time in NCAA tourney wins.

"Defense and rebounding, that's really been our calling card," Karaban said as he chases a rare third title. "Every time we've had success or won championships, that's what our calling card has been."

And, of course, UConn would not be playing at Lucas Oil Stadium without a remarkable 19-point rally and Brayton Mullins' miraculous 35-foot, 3-pointer to beat top-seeded Duke 73-72 last Sunday. Mullins is now playing just 37 minutes away from his hometown - Greenfield, Indiana.

Hurley, too, is chasing milestones. He needs one victory for career win No. 350, two for his 200th win at UConn, giving him his third national title in four years and the Huskies their seventh crown since 1999.

Just don't get fooled by what happened in November.

Mullins entered his college debut on a 10-minute restriction because of an early-season injury that forced him to miss UConn's first six games. Now he's playing in front of a home-state crowd that will include his family and perhaps a large contingent of local residents clad in UConn gear.

"I told him last night, I was like 'Look, man, it's time to get ready for Illinois," Mullins' father, Josh, told The Associated Press during Friday's open practice at the 72,500-seat football stadium turned basketball arena. "Just enjoy the hell out of the time we have right here. It's pretty awesome."

Illinois is different, too. Guard Keaton Wagler, a second-team All-American, was just starting to emerge as a scoring threat in November. Today, he's the Illini's leading scorer (17.9 points) and the South Region MOP.

In November, forward Jake Davis was still coming off the bench and guard Andrej Stojakovic was still trying to find his groove. Davis now starts, Stojakovic's big plays off the bench have played a key role in fueling Illinois' tourney run and the 7-foot Ivisic twins, Tomislav and Zvonimir, have provided a needed physical presence.

The result: Illinois steamrolled its way through four tourney games, beating Penn, VCU, Houston and surprise Elite Eight participant Iowa all by double-digit margins. The second-seeded Cougars, who won a regional in Indy last year before losing in the title game, even were playing in Houston.

Now it's time for Underwood & Co. to prove they have what it takes to contend with the always sturdy Huskies, with a chance to erase the bleak memories from the previous matchups by reaching the school's second title game in front of what is expected to be a large contingent of orange-clad fans making the two-hour drive to Indy.

"I think from the game two years ago, it's a clean slate," Stojakovic said. "But we're not really worried about that game. Obviously, we've gotten better (since November), had some guys return from injuries - both sides."

The Associated Press contribute to this report.