An elite comeback has No. 3 Texas Tech back in the Elite 8.
Trailing by 16 midway through the second half, the Red Raiders stormed back and forced overtime with a Darrion Williams 3-pointer with 9.7 seconds remaining in regulation before he scored the game-winning basket with 7.3 seconds left in overtime to advance with an 85-83 overtime win over No. 10 Arkansas on Thursday at the Chase Center. The Red Raiders (28-8), who are making the program's third Elite 8 appearance, will now play No. 1 Florida (33-4) at 5:05 p.m. on Saturday with a trip to the 2025 Final Four in San Antonio on the line.
"What an unbelievable college basketball game," Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said. "They came out and punched us good. I kept telling these guys in timeouts that we're going to win the game. D5, I don't know what he started the game out 0-for quite a few from 3. And Christian was 0-for. I told them we're going to make it when it matters. I believe it with all my heart. That's Red Raider basketball. It doesn't matter what the score is, what's stacked against us -- I think we got down to 16 at one point and telling JT we've got to get stops and rebounds."
Christian Anderson led the Red Raiders with a career-high 22 points, including hitting three 3-pointers while adding three assists and four rebounds. Williams and JT Toppin both had 20 points and nine rebounds each and Kevin Overton scored 12 points.Toppin matched a career-high and Tech tournament best with five blocked shots along with going 10-for-18 from the field. Williams may have struggled shooting with a final stat line of 2-for-10 from 3-point range but proved to be clutch. "I was mad I was missing them," Williams said. "My teammates and coaches just kept telling me we're going to make them down the line. He's going to rock with me whether I make or miss them. Just seeing it come to fruition and be good in this big moment, it's really cool." On an off-shooting night, Texas Tech recorded a program-record 51 rebounds in the NCAA Tournament, including grabbing 22 offensive rebounds. Federiko Federiko led the Red Raiders with seven offensive rebounds and finished the game with nine rebounds and seven points. Tech was 8-for-32 from 3-point range in the game, shot 41.0 percent from the field and was 9-of-11 at the free-throw line.
The game, which was led by Arkansas for nearly 39 minutes of it, went into overtime tied at 72-72 after Tech went on a 16-3 run to close regulation, tying the game on a Williams 3-pointer with 9.7 seconds remaining and Arkansas coming up short on two attempts at the game-winner. Anderson made three 3-pointers in the second half, including hitting one to make it 69-66 with two minutes to play and then another to cut the Razorback lead to 72-69 with one minute remaining. Arkansas led by as many as 16 in the second half. Tech was back into single digits with a pair of layups before Anderson hit his 3-pointers.
"In the huddle, Coach said we're going to find a way to win this no matter how much we're down," Anderson said. "I think it was 16 with 10 minutes left or something. As a team we had that look, we're not losing this game no matter what, no matter if it's defensive, offensive rebounds, we've got to get defensive rebounds, steals. We had to find a way to make it happen. And at the end we did."
In overtime, Toppin scored on Tech's opening possession before a 3-pointer from Elijah Hawkins gave the Red Raiders a 77-76 lead two minutes into the extra session. Arkansas would take a one-point lead but Tech continued responding, tying the game again on a Williams free throw and taking an 81-78 lead on a Toppin basket with 1:41 on the clock. The game was tied again, this time at 83-all after a D.J. Wagner shot with 34 seconds remaining to set up more heroics from Williams who hit the go-ahead shot and send the Red Raiders to the next round.
"We just wanted to play our hardest," Williams said. "If we would have just rolled over and let them beat by 30 the season would be over. None of us wanted that. We'll give our best shot and what happen happened."
Johnell Davis led Arkansas with a game-high 30 points, including making three 3-pointers and going 11-for-11 from the free-throw line while Karter Knox added 20 points and six rebounds. The Razorbacks had their season end with a 22-14 overall record after a game where they were 10-for-25 from 3-point range and 19-of-22 at the line.
Texas Tech trailed 38-31 going into halftime with Williams hitting a 3-pointer in the final seconds to cut its deficit to seven going into the break. The Red Raiders trailed by as many as 13 in the first half after going just 3-for-16 on 3-pointers and shooting 35.3 percent overall. Williams led Tech with eight rebounds and had five points while Overton had a team-high 10 points after making 2-of-3 from 3-point range. Toppin went into halftime with eight points and three rebounds and Anderson had five points. The Razorbacks had the seven-point lead after going 7-for-14 from 3-point range and going 9-for-10 from the free-throw line. Davis led Arkansas with 14 points with two 3-pointers and Knox had 11 points after going 3-for-3 on 3-pointers in the first half. Tech came into the game with a 3-7 record this season when trailing at the half. Overton made Tech's first 3-pointer to cut the Arkansas lead to 22-14 and his second for a 23-19 game. The teams went into halftime tied 21-21 on the glass and with Tech leading with a 16-8 scoring advantage in the paint.
