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Florida pulls off stunning rally to beat Texas Tech and reach Final Four of March Madness
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- Florida pulls off stunning rally to beat Texas Tech and reach Final Four of March Madness
The first ticket to the 2025 men's Final Four has been booked. Florida is headed to San Antonio, Texas.
No. 1 seed Gators overcame a 10-point second half deficit with clutch shooting down the stretch to beat No. 3 seed Texas Tech 84-79 and advance to the Final Four for the first time in 11 years.
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With a less than four minutes to go, Texas Tech led 75-66, and the situation looked bleak for the Gators. But after 3-point shooting was off all night, the deep shots started to fall at the end to complete the comeback. Florida ended the game on a 18-4 run in the final three minutes, helped by four consecutive 3-pointers.
"They've done it all year," Gators coach Todd Golden said. "They stayed the course - never too high and never too low. We're down nine going into the last media (timeout). We just had to dig in and get some stops."
Florida forward Thomas Haugh (10) dunks as Texas Tech guard Christian Anderson tries to defend during the West Regional final of the 2025 NCAA men's tournament at Chase Center.
Walter Clayton Jr. has been the leader for Florida all season and he delivered again. He scored 30 points, 22 of which came in the second half in another signature performance from the guard and his second 30-point game of the season.
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Clayton tied the game at 75-all with a three with 90 seconds left. Texas Tech's Darrion Williams hit a layup to give his team the lead back, but Clayton hit the go-ahead 3-point shot with 59 seconds left, and Florida held the lead for the rest of the way.
"I just got all these guys around me," Clayton said. "We don't spread apart in adversity. We come together. The whole team, we all did it together."
Florida is now headed to its sixth Final Four and first since 2014, and are two games away from winning its first national title since it went back-to-back in 2006 and 2007.
Williams finished with team-high 23 points, and JT Toppin added 20 in the loss that denied the Red Raiders their second Final Four trip. They previously made the national semifinals in 2019. The free throw battle greatly hurt Texas Tech. It was just 7-for-13 (53.8%) from the line. Williams and Toppin also missed the front end of 1-and-1 attempts in the final minutes that allowed Florida back in the game. Meanwhile, the Gators were 25-for-27 (92.6%) in free throws.
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Florida has one of the best offenses in the country, but Texas Tech was also among the top-scoring teams. The Red Raiders came out of the gates on fire from 3-point land with six makes on their first seven attempts, jumping out to an early lead midway through the first half.
Florida wasn't knocking down shots at the same clip for much of the first half, but free throws helped the Gators stay close. It was a big difference to start with a perfect 10-for-10 start from the charity stripe in the first half, while Texas Tech was 2-for-6. The Florida offense eventually found a rhythm and led by three at the break.
After Florida tied the game with 11 and a half minutes to go, Texas Tech went on a 12-2 run, capped with an alley oop from Christian Anderson to Federiko Federiko to give the Red Raiders their largest lead at 10 points. Florida then ended the game on a 27-12 run in the final eight minutes to win.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Florida rallies past Texas Tech to reach Final Four of March Madness
