• The Florida Gators men’s basketball team defeated Texas Tech 84-79 to advance to the Final Four.
• Down by nine points with under four minutes remaining, Florida finished the game on an 18-4 run.
• Walter Clayton Jr. led the Gators with 30 points, including the go-ahead three-pointer with 59 seconds left.
• Florida will face the winner of the South Region in the Final Four, marking their first appearance since 2014.

SAN FRANCISCO ― With 3:14 left and Texas Tech up 75-66 on Florida basketball after an inside basket by JT Toppin, there was reason to believe a breakthrough season for Florida basketball was going to fall short of its ultimate goal.

But no one on the Florida Gators stopped believing.

Certainly, not UF third-year coach Todd Golden.

“I didn’t feel like we were without hope,” Golden said following UF’s 84-79 comeback win over Texas Tech at the Chase Center. “I felt like our guys still felt we had a shot but understood that we didn’t have that much time. And we had to pick it up and make sure we got every block-out and make sure we got every 50-50 ball and obviously step up and make big shots.”

Florida closed the game on an 18-4 run, fueled by big shots, big stops and a coaching decision by Golden that brought back memories of the late Jim Valvano. In 1983, coaching at North Carolina State, Valvano fouled on purpose down the stretch against Houston in the national title game in an effort to rally back from a late deficit. It worked as Houston missed free throws and Lorenzo Charles made a dunk at the buzzer to lift the Wolfpack to a 54-52 win and the national title.

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Golden went the same route, fouling Texas Tech frontcourt standouts Toppin and Darrion Williams in an effort to steal possessions. Both missed front ends of one-and-ones in crunch time, contributing to the UF comeback. To that point, Williams (23 points) and Toppin (20 points) were bullying UF with inside baskets.

“We felt like being down nine or 10, whatever it was, at the under-four, we had to find a way to get a few more possessions in the ball game and try to stretch it out a little bit,” Golden said. “And being in the one-on-one we thought that was an opportunistic time to foul their frontcourt, given the opportunity.”

Walter Clayton Jr., Thomas Haugh save the day for Florida basketball

Florida was 5-for-19 from 3-point range entering the under four-minute timeout. But when the Gators needed 3-pointers the most, they made them.

First came a Thomas Haugh 3-pointer that cut the Texas Tech to 75-69 with 2:50 remaining. Then, another 3-pointer from Haugh with 2:27 to go to cut the TTU lead to 75-72.

When Clayton Jr. then sank a 3-pointer with 1:47 left, the Gator fans in attendance erupted.

“We all kept telling each other to stay together, stay the course,” Clayton said. “There’s a lot of time left on the clock. Keep on playing to the final buzzer. Don’t break during adversity.”

In between, Florida finally strung together a few stops on defense.

“At the end of the last couple minutes we locked in on a scout and just trusted it,” Haugh said. “And it worked off. That’s a credit to the coaches and also the players just for executing that.”

An inside basket by Williams put Texas Tech up 77-75, but when Clayton drained his third 3-pointer of the game, a contested shot to put Florida up 78-77 with 59 seconds to go. The Gators had a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

Texas Tech missed 3-point attempts down the stretch that they made earlier. At one point, Texas Tech held a 10-5 edge on 3-pointers made, but Florida made four in a row down the stretch to even that margin out.

“The 3-point shooting was the difference for a while,” Golden said. “But down the stretch, obviously, I think we made our last four and we needed every single one of them. And they were huge for us.”

Florida senior guard Alijah Martin threw the ball up in the air in celebration as the final buzzer sounded. There were plenty of hugs among teammates, coaches and parents who made their way to the floor during the postgame ceremony. Martin wore one of the nets around his neck.

Florida is heading to the Final Four for the sixth time in school history and the first time since 2014 in a grind-it-out comeback in which it continued to show its togetherness.

Clayton wound up with 30 points and was named West Region MVP, while Haugh, with 20 points and 11 rebounds in 30 minutes off the bench, was named to the all-tournament team. But ultimately, it was a group effort.

“I feel like I’m dreaming,” Haugh said. “I was watching the Round of 64 in the eighth grade sneaking my phone into science class watching it. Now, to say I’m playing in the Final Four is wild. It’s wild.”

Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1