Florida needed a late surge to get to the Final Four . The No. 1 Gators went on a 12-2 run to take the lead with less than a minute to go on the way to an 84-79 win over No.
3 Texas Tech . Star guard Walter Clayton Jr. scored the final six points of that run with two 3-pointers.
Clayton tied the game at 75-75 with 1:47 to go and then buried another with 59 seconds remaining to give Florida the lead for good. Texas Tech took control of the game in the second half and led 75-66 with 3:14 to go. But the Red Raiders didn’t score for nearly two minutes.
And in that span, Florida had completely erased the deficit thanks to two crucial missed free throws. Tech had a chance to tie the game after Alijah Martin made two free throws with 20 seconds to go. But Darrion Williams' 3-pointer with 16 seconds to go bounced off the rim and Clayton sealed the game at the free-throw line.
The Gators finished the game on an 18-4 run. Florida got back into the game as Williams and JT Toppin — the Big 12 player of the year — both missed the front end of 1-and-1 opportunities at the line. Williams missed a free throw with 2:43 to go in between 3-pointers by Thomas Haugh to cut Tech’s lead to three.
Toppin then missed a free throw with 2:08 to go and Clayton hit the first of his two back-to-back threes on the ensuing possession. Clayton finished the game with 30 points and was 13-for-14 from the free-throw line. Haugh had 20 and was 4-for-6 from behind the arc.
Williams and Toppin combined for.