SAN FRANCISCO - Florida point guard Walter Clayton Jr. found himself surrounded down low in the key by taller Texas Tech opponents and saw an opening. In an instant, he was dribbling back toward midcourt, untouched. At the top of the 3-point arc, he turned and let fly.

Splash.

It was Clayton's second straight 3-pointer in the final two minutes of the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight contest, and it put top-seeded Florida ahead to stay in the final minute as the Gators survived third-seeded Texas Tech 84-79 to advance to the Final Four.

Clayton earned All-West Regional honors for his heroics down the stretch. He scored 13 of his game-high 30 points after Florida (34-4) fell behind 71-61 -- its largest deficit of the contest and spurred a 23-8 Gators run that closed the game.

"Guys could break apart during those moments," Clayton said. "We stay the course, stay together. It shows the love we have for each other in tough times. But we stay together, stay the course and play to the final buzzer."

The victory lifted Florida into its first Final Four since 2014. The Gators will play the winner of Sunday's South Regional final between Auburn (31-5), the tournament's overall top seed, and the region's No. 2 seed Michigan State (30-6) in the Final Four next Saturday in San Antonio.

It also gave head coach Todd Golden his first trip to the season's final weekend in the city where he coached before he arrived in Gainesville in 2022.

Thomas Haugh added 20 points, including two big 3-pointers during the second-half comeback for Florida. He also contributed 11 rebounds. Guard Alijah Martin added 10 points and seven boards.

"I feel like I'm dreaming, you know?" Haugh said. "I remember watching the Round of 64 when I was in eighth grade, sneaking a phone into the classroom. And now I'm playing in a Final Four. It's an amazing feeling."

Forward Darrion Williams led the Red Raiders with 23 points, and forward JT Toppin added 20, including three straight layups late in the second half that put Texas Tech ahead 75-66 and appeared to vault the Red Raiders to their first trip to the Final Four since 2019, when they were the national runner-up.

"It's not what we wanted, obviously," Williams said. "But we were picked to finish seventh in (the Big 12). If anybody told you they thought we'd be in the Sweet 16, they'd be lying. I wish I could change a few plays. Until the clock hit zero, I thought we'd win."

The game began to leak away when Williams and Toppin both missed free throws that were the front end of 1-and-1 situations. Haugh followed Williams' miss with a 3-pointer, then Clayton did the same after Toppin missed.

"They do a great job of milking the game when they have a lead," Golden said. "Darrion and JT are quality players. We felt like they were getting them in (isolation) situations. We don't double-team a lot. We felt we had to find a way to get more possessions. Being in a 1-and-1, we felt it was an opportunistic time to foul their big guys.

The Red Raiders caused 12 turnovers and outscored the Gators 22-5 off of them.

They also came up short despite the return of guard Chance McMillian from an oblique strain that has kept him out of the past four games. McMillian scored 14 points in 26 minutes.

"What Chance McMillian did had nothing to do with the score. It had everything to do with how I want to live my life," Red Raiders coach Grant McCasland said. "It's almost miraculous what he did to play in that game."

Without Clayton, it may have been another story. The three 3-pointers that Clayton made down the stretch were his only 3 of the night and came after he had missed his first five tries.

Haugh started Florida's comeback with a 3-pointer from the left wing with 2:50 to go. Haugh went 4 of 6 from deep as the Gators went 5 of 13 on 3-pointers in the second half. All five makes came in the final 5:24.

Texas Tech led by 10 on multiple occasions in the second half, including on Toppin's jumper on a post-up with 6:38 to play. He then hit a layup on the Red Raiders' next possession to push the lead back to 10 at 71-61. Florida then got a trey from Clayton on a ball that bounded more than once off the rim, starting the game-ending 23-8 run.

--Field Level Media