Walter Clayton Jr. rescued top-seeded Florida with two late 3-pointers, and the Gators rallied from 9 factors down late to succeed in the Final Four with an 84-79 victory over Texas Tech within the NCAA Match’s West Area remaining on Saturday.
The Gators (34-4) trailed 75-66 with lower than three minutes to play earlier than staging a livid rally in opposition to the third-seeded Crimson Raiders (28-9), who had finished the identical within the Candy 16 in opposition to Arkansas.
Clayton dribbled out of the paint and hit a fadeaway 3 with 59 seconds left to provide Florida a 78-77 lead, and the Gators held on from there to advance to their first Remaining 4 since 2014 in coach Todd Golden’s third season. Florida will face the South Area champion — both Auburn or Michigan State — subsequent Saturday in San Antonio.
The comeback supplied a contented ending to Golden’s return to the Bay Area, the place he performed in school at Saint Mary’s and received his begin as a head coach at San Francisco.
As the ultimate horn sounded, Golden turned to the Gators followers and demonstrably pumped his fist as his gamers rushed out to the courtroom to have fun a victory that regarded inconceivable just some minutes earlier.
Clayton, who started his school profession at Iona, scored 30 factors to guide the Gators. Thomas Haugh added 20 factors and 11 rebounds off the bench.
Haugh began the comeback with two 3-pointers. Clayton then tied it together with his shot from lengthy vary after Texas Tech missed a second straight entrance finish of a one-and-one.
After Darrius Williams scored down low for Texas Tech, Clayton’s final 3 put Florida forward to remain, and the Gators sealed it on the foul line.
Williams missed two 3s late. He had sank the game-tying basket late in regulation and game-winner within the closing seconds of time beyond regulation in opposition to Arkansas on Thursday night time.
Texas Tech fell simply wanting its second Remaining 4 journey ever after being on the unsuitable facet of a late-game comeback. The Crimson Raiders rallied from 13 factors within the remaining 5 minutes to beat the Razorbacks within the Candy 16.
Williams scored 23 factors to guide Texas Tech and JT Toppin added 20.
The sport was tight a lot of the method with neither workforce capable of construct a lead larger than six factors for the primary half-hour as Texas Tech capitalized on turnovers and second-chance factors and Florida repeatedly received to the foul line. Clayton received fouled twice on 3-pointers early within the second half, main to 5 factors on the six foul photographs.
The Crimson Raiders went on a 12-2 run to go up by 10 however couldn’t maintain on late.
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