2004-03-19 04:00:00 PDT Seattle -- If Stanford's game against Alabama on Saturday comes down to a last shot, the Cardinal had better hope Crimson Tide point guard Antoine Pettway does not have the ball in his hands.

Although he does not score much, Pettway has a habit of making critical late-game shots, and he did it again Thursday, hitting a running eight-footer with five seconds left to give eighth-seeded Alabama (18-12) a 65-64 victory over No. 9 seed Southern Illinois (25-5) in a first-round NCAA Tournament game.

"It just seems like the ball winds up in my hands at the end," Pettway said.

As a sophomore two years ago, Pettway's last-second shot against Florida gave Alabama the Southeastern Conference-West regular-season title. This season, he made a game-winning 3-pointer against Georgia and hit a game-tying 3-pointer at the end of regulation against Arkansas, enabling the Tide to win in overtime.

"I wouldn't pick anyone else to take the final shot," Alabama guard Earnest Shelton said after scoring a team-high 18 points. "I don't know what he shot before that, but you know damn straight he'll make that one."

Pettway, who averages 9.4 points, will go against Stanford's Chris Hernandez on Saturday in a matchup of players with so-so numbers but with a huge impact on their team's success.

The final five seconds Thursday turned the player who seemed destined to be the goat (Pettway) into the hero, and left the star of the game (Southern Illinois' Darren Brooks) bemoaning his failure to win the game.

Brooks, the Missouri Valley Conference player of the year, scored 25 points, hit all five of his 3-point attempts and did a bang-up defensive job on Alabama's all-SEC forward Kennedy Winston. Winston had just 14 points, and seven of those came during a two-minute span when Brooks was on the bench. Winston went scoreless in the final 16 minutes, when the Salukis mounted a comeback from a 10-point deficit, and Brooks put SIU ahead with a majestic up- and-under move that resulted in a basket and a 64-63 lead with 13 seconds left.

"I thought that was the game," Brooks said.

Not quite. Pettway was just 1-for-7 from field, including 0-for-3 on treys, when he took a pass from Winston at the top of the key. He thought about taking a 3-pointer, then drove the lane, throwing up a floater that fell through with five seconds left.

SIU had a final chance with 2.8 seconds left, and Brooks was able to get a 20-foot shot away at the buzzer. It missed.

"We have a chance to play the No. 1 team and I'm sure our players will be excited about it," Alabama coach Mike Gottfried said. "We've played as good a schedule as anybody."

In fact, the RPI rates Alabama's schedule the second best in the country, which is why the Crimson Tide got into the tournament with a decent seed despite its 8-8 mark in the SEC. They played 13 games against teams who are in the NCAA Tournament, and won four, including a road win over Mississippi State.

The only common opponent for Stanford and Alabama was Oregon, which Alabama beat by a point and Stanford beat twice. The matchup of note will be Winston against Stanford's Josh Childress.