No. 3 Texas Tech is improbably a win away from its second Final Four ever thanks to Darrion Williams.
Williams tied the Red Raiders’ Sweet 16 game vs. No. 10 Arkansas with nine seconds to go in the second half and then scored the game-winning basket with seven seconds to go in overtime for the 85-83 victory.
Tech closed the second half on a 16-3 run over the final 4:21 to send it to overtime. Arkansas had a second-half lead as big as 16 before the Red Raiders finally started hitting shots and whittling down the deficit over the final minutes.
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Williams was 1-for-9 from the 3-point line before hitting his game-tying shot to force the first overtime of the 2025 NCAA men’s tournament.
Tech trailed for much of the second half because the team shot so poorly. The Red Raiders were 3-of-24 from the 3-point line at one point in the second half before closing regulation 4-of-7 from behind the arc. Texas Tech entered the game as one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the country at 37% and shot just 8-of-32 against the Razorbacks.
Arkansas, meanwhile, shot much better than it typically does from the 3-point line. The Razorbacks shoot just 32% from the 3-point line and were 10-of-25 on Thursday night.
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But that good shooting didn’t prevent the biggest collapse of the tournament so far. Arkansas appeared to have the game wrapped up multiple times in the second half. Knox hit a 3-pointer to extend Arkansas’ lead to six with 1:28 to go, but Tech quickly cut the lead back to three.
Texas Tech’s only Final Four appearance came in 2019 when the Red Raiders lost to Virginia in the national title game. Their Elite Eight appearance is just the third in school history as Tech also made the Elite Eight in 2018 before losing to Villanova.
On Saturday, the Red Raiders will take on No. 1 Florida in the West region finale. The Gators likely thought for much of the second half that they’d be seeing Arkansas again in a matchup that would have guaranteed the SEC at least one team in the Final Four.
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Williams was one of three Tech players who scored at least 20 points. Big 12 player of the year JT Toppin also had 20 points and nine rebounds while guard Christian Anderson led Tech with 22 points.
The Red Raiders are also just one of two Big 12 teams remaining in the NCAA tournament along with No. 1 Houston after losses by BYU and Arizona on Thursday night. The No. 6 Cougars lost to No. 2 Alabama and No. 4 Arizona lost to No. 1 Duke in the East region.
Arkansas has made it to the Sweet 16 in each of its last four NCAA tournament appearances. But this may be the most disappointing loss in that span even though the Razorbacks were a No. 10 seed. And it’s a bitter end to what had been a resurgence in February and March in John Calipari’s first season in Fayetteville.
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Arkansas started SEC play 0-5 and was 1-6 before a win at Kentucky. The Razorbacks went 6-4 to end the regular season and was one of 14 SEC teams in the NCAA tournament before taking down No. 7 Kansas and No. 2 St. John’s to get to the Sweet 16.
For much of Thursday night, it looked like Calipari’s team would be a win away from his fourth Final Four as a coach. Instead, it was hard not to think about how Kentucky had flamed out in the NCAA tournament in his final three seasons at the school. The Wildcats didn’t advance past the first weekend and lost twice in the first round over the previous three seasons.
