Thriller! Florida ends the second half, beats Texas Tech to pass in the Final Four

San Francisco – Florida is the Linked Four.

The best classified Gators overcome a second half-time deficit of 10 points to defeat Texas Tech 84-79 n ° 3 at the Chase Center on Saturday afternoon. Florida will go to his sixth Final Four and first since 2014, where he will play the winner of the Auburn-Michigan State match next week in San Antonio.

Florida star Walter Clayton Jr. overturned the 3 -point pointer with a little more than two minutes to go and hit the long ball to a few possessions later to give Florida an advance from a point. Florida has finished the last six minutes of the match on a race of 18-4.

Clayton finished with a summit of 30 points while his teammate Thomas Haugh collected 20 points and 11 rebounds.

“It’s incredible,” said Florida coach Todd Golden, a former Saint Mary player and USF head coach. “To be able to be here in 3rd year and bring Florida back in the Final Four is something incredibly special.”

Darrion Williams of Texas Tech led the Red Raiders with 23 points and five rebounds, and JT Toppin finished with 20 points and 11 plates. In his last college match, the native of Vallejo, Chance McMillian, scored 14 points after missing the last four games of the team.

Texas technology coach Grant McCasland said that he thought his team had not been executed in the section.

“I just have the impression that we pushed the tempo a little too quickly late in the match and that we rushed certain things,” said McCasland. “I felt like we had a little more composure, then if we had been able to bounce defensive and limit the three of Clayton, then I think it would have been the difference in the game, for me.”

Texas Tech started slowly in his Sweet 16 match against Arkansas, but this was not the case on Saturday.

The Red Raiders scored on three of their first four possessions with all their marks to come on shots beyond the arc. The Lubbock school took an advance from 24-19 to nine and a half minutes in the first half.

But Florida has rebounded to close half a high. A quick break, a haughty slam gave Florida an advance from 32-31 to 4:34. Florida would continue to take an advance from 40-37 to half-time.

Texas Tech opened the first six minutes of the second half on a 13-5 race, fed by Toppin and Williams, who combined to score all the points of the Red Raiders in this section.

A Alijah Martin’s breakaway dunk in Florida equaled the match at 55, but Texas Tech made a 12-2 race over the next four minutes, crowned by a Federiko Federiko Slam Alley-Oop.

The game seemed almost sealed for Texas Tech, which had a nine points advance with a little less than four minutes in the match.

But Florida has found a way to come back.

The 3 consecutive points of HAGH cut Texas Tech only three with 2:27 to play. Walter Clayton Jr. then knocked out a long ball step back from the left wing to equalize the match at 75.

His 3 with 59 seconds to play gave Florida his first advance in the second half in more than 13 minutes.

“We stayed together,” said Clayton. “We just wanted to play until the final buzzer and not to break during adversity.”

From there it was in Florida.

Martin, Clayton and the senior goalkeeper Will Richard made the six free throws of Florida in the last minute to put the match.

“It’s an eternal belief,” said Clayton. “I think it shows how we are all together. Many teams can easily break and start pointing your finger, blaming us for that. We stayed together until the end and fortunately, we did.”

Originally published: March 29, 2025 at 5:33 pm PDT