The 81st all-time meeting between the Texas Tech basketball team and Arkansas will forever be a game that fans at both schools will remember. Fortunately, it was the Red Raiders who took the 41-40 series advantage by virtue of an 85-83 overtime win to advance to the Elite Eight.
However, for the first 30 minutes of play, the Razorbacks dominated the action. In fact, at just under 11 minutes to play, Arkansas led 59-43, and it looked like this game was destined to be a laugher for the No. 10 seed.
However, slowly, the Red Raiders chipped away, and with two minutes to go, Tech cut the lead to 69-66. However, the Razorbacks then got a clutch three on the next possession to restore a six-point lead with 1:28 remaining.
Fortunately, Tech would close the game on a 6-0 run. Christian Anderson made a three to cut the lead to 72-69 with 1:07 to play and then, after a Red Raider stop on the defensive end, Darrion Williams drilled a 3-pointer to tie the game with nine seconds to play to ultimately force overtime.
In the extra five minutes, the teams traded blows back and forth. In fact, the game was knotted at 83 with just 34 seconds to play. That's when Williams came up clutch again.
With just seven seconds to play, he hit a backdown layup to put Tech ahead by two. Then, Arkansas decided to play the game out rather than calling a timeout. Fortunately, Tech finally sealed the win when the Razorbacks missed a contested jumper at the buzzer.
It was the most improbable NCAA Tournament win in Texas Tech history and one that will be etched in school lore. There will be tons of fallout from this game, but for now, let's take a look inside the box score for three rapid reactions as we try to process what we saw late Thursday night into Friday morning.
Texas Tech dominates on the offensive glass
One of the problems Arkansas has struggled with for much of the season has been giving up offensive rebounds. Though they beat No. 2 seed St. John's in the second round, they gave up 28 offensive boards in that game, and on Thursday night, that flaw spelled doom for them.
Tech won the game largely because of the 22 offensive rebounds that they pulled down. That led to 16 second-chance points.
Meanwhile, Arkansas had just 11 offensive rebounds. What's more, they got just nine points off of them.
Leading the way on the glass was an unlikely hero, Federiko Federiko, who pulled down seven offensive boards (and nine overall) in just 13 minutes of play. Meanwhile, Williams and Kevin Overton both pulled down three offensive rebounds.
This team's mantra under head coach Grant McCasland is "Toughest Team Wins" and Tech was the toughest team on the glass, owning a 51-39 edge despite being the much smaller team. That was perhaps the main reason the Red Raiders survived.
Texas Tech limits turnovers
While the heroics of Williams and Anderson will get most of the headlines, one aspect of this win that can't be overlooked is the way Tech took care of the ball. Arkansas is a team that thrives off of fast-break points, most of which come after turnovers.
However, for the game, Tech gave the ball away only eight times. Even more importantly, Arkansas had only three points off of those turnovers.
In the final five minutes of regulation and the five-minute overtime period, Tech gave the ball away just once, an errant Overton pass early in OT. That was a huge factor in the comeback.
What's more fascinating is that Tech had such a low-turnover game despite seeing its senior point guard, Elijah Hawkins, give the ball away five times while handing out only five assists. Have a 1: 1 assist: turnover ratio is unheard of for Hawkins but Tech survived that type of performance from him.
Tech only had 12 assists for the entire game on 34 made buckets. However, because the Red Raiders took care of the ball, even on a night when their point guard struggled in that regard, they were able to hang around and ultimately pull out the win.
Tech finally put the clamps on Davis
Last, let's all be thankful that Arkansas guard Johnell Davis finally came back to reality at the end of the game. The senior scored a game-high 30 points on 8-22 shooting and 11-11 from the free-throw line.
At times, while playing in the home arena of the Golden State Warriors, it looked like he had channeled the spirit of Steph Curry and for much of the night, it looked like he was going to carry Arkansas to a win.
However, in the final nine minutes of the game, Davis went scoreless. What's more, during that time, three of the five shots he missed were in the paint.
Arkansas needed Davis to stay hot throughout the game, but the player who came into the game averaging a modest 11.4 points per game couldn't stay nuclear for the entire 45 minutes. When he cooled off, Tech finally started to claw back.
Give plenty of credit to Overton for the defense he played on Davis down the stretch. With Kerwin Walton benched for the entire second half due to some terrible early defensive lapses, Overton logged 37 minutes in the game and was a true bright spot with 12 points (most of which came in the first half as he single-handedly kept Tech within striking distance) and seven rebounds.
However, in the second half, it was his defense that was most important. He was able to bother Davis enough to get him to cool down, and that finally allowed Tech the opportunity to mount its miraculous comeback.