SAN FRANCISCO — Florida is Final Four bound.
The top-seeded Gators overcame a 10-point second half deficit to defeat No. 3 Texas Tech 84-79 at Chase Center Saturday afternoon. Florida will advance to its sixth ever Final Four and first since 2014, where it will play the winner of Sunday’s Auburn-Michigan State game next week in San Antonio.
Florida star Walter Clayton Jr. knocked down the game-tying 3-pointer with just over two minutes to go and hit the go-ahead long ball just a few possessions later to give Florida a one-point lead. Florida finished the final six minutes of the game on a 18-4 run.
Clayton finished with a game-high 30 points while teammate Thomas Haugh had 20 points and 11 rebounds.
“It’s incredible,” said Florida coach Todd Golden, a former Saint Mary’s player and USF head coach. “To be able to be here in Year 3 and to get Florida back to the Final Four is something that’s incredibly special.”
Texas Tech’s Darrion Williams led the Red Raiders with 23 points and five rebounds, and JT Toppin finished with 20 points and 11 boards. In his final collegiate game, Vallejo native Chance McMillian scored 14 points after missing the team’s last four games.
Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said he believed his team didn’t execute down the stretch.
“I just feel like we pushed the tempo a little too quick late in the game and rushed some things,” McCasland said. “I felt like if we had a little more composure, and then if we would have been able to defensive rebound and limit the threes from Clayton, then I think that would have been the difference in the game, for me.”
Texas Tech got off to a slow start in its Sweet 16 game against Arkansas, but that wasn’t the case on Saturday.
The Red Raiders scored on three of their first four possessions with all their makes coming on shots from beyond the arc. The Lubbock school took a 24-19 lead nine and half minutes into the first half.
But Florida bounced back to close the half strong. A fast break, one-handed slam from Haugh gave Florida a 32-31 lead at the 4:34 mark. Florida would go on to take a 40-37 lead into halftime.
Texas Tech opened the first six minutes of the second half on a 13-5 run, fueled by Toppin and Williams, who combined to score all of the Red Raiders’ points in that stretch.
A breakaway dunk from Florida’s Alijah Martin tied the game at 55, but Texas Tech went on a 12-2 run over the next four minutes, capped off by an alley-oop slam from Federiko Federiko.
The game looked all but sealed for Texas Tech, which had a nine-point lead with just under four minutes left in the game.
But Florida found a way to come back.
Back-to-back 3-pointers from Haugh cut the Texas Tech lead to just three with 2:27 to play. Walter Clayton Jr. then knocked down a step back long ball from the left wing to tie the game at 75.
His 3 with 59 seconds left gave Florida its first second-half lead in over 13 minutes.
“We just stayed together,” Clayton said. “We just wanted to play until the final buzzer and not break during adversity.”
From there, it was all Florida.
Martin, Clayton and senior guard Will Richard made all six of Florida’s free throws in the final minute to put the game away.
“It’s an undying belief,” Clayton said. “I think it just it goes to show how together we all are. Many teams can easily just break and start pointing finger, blaming each other for this and that. We just stayed together until the end and thankfully we got it done.”