ANAHEIM, Calif. — Defense wins championships. That’s the axiom that generally applies to football. Texas Tech proved it still works in college basketball, even in this era of 3-point fireworks.
The Red Raiders used their heralded defense when it counted most Saturday to outlast Gonzaga, 75-69, at the Honda Center and advance to their first Final Four. The third-seeded Red Raiders (30-6) held the highest-scoring offense in college basketball to 43.1 percent shooting and caused 16 turnovers to knock off the No. 1-seeded Bulldogs.
“They’re really good at reaching, poking and digging things out of there,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “That defense is real. It definitely impacted us.”
Jarrett Culver had 19 points and Matt Mooney added 17 for Texas Tech, which will play the winner of Sunday’s East Region final between Duke and Michigan State in the national semifinal Saturday.
“Texas Tech is going to the Final Four,” Red Raiders coach Chris Beard repeated over and over.
Later, he added, “We knew we’d have to play a perfect game to beat them and in many ways we did.”
Gonzaga, trying to go to the Final Four for the second time in three years, got 22 points from Rui Hachimura and ended its season at 33-4. Brandon Clarke had 18 points and Josh Perkins had 17.
In a back-and-forth battle in which Texas Tech’s biggest lead was never more than seven points, Perkins splashed a running 3-pointer that cut the Red Raiders lead to 69-67 with 22 seconds remaining. But Texas Tech won the game at the free-throw line as Mooney, Davide Moretti and Culver each made a pair of free throws to help the Red Raiders pull away.
Moretti made his free throws as part of a technical foul call on Perkins for slapping the ball while Mooney was trying to inbound it with 10 seconds remaining and Texas Tech up 71-69. “Bonehead play,” Perkins said.
Gonzaga outrebounded the Red Raiders 37-29 and scored 19 points in transition. But the Zags were doomed by their turnovers and 36.4 percent shooting in the second half.
“I still feel like it just came down to us missing some shots and them hitting some shots,” Clarke said. “I feel like it was even defensively but they just came up with some big plays in the end.”
The West Region final was a collision of the best offense in college basketball against arguably the best defense. Would Gonzaga, a team that averaged 88 points a game during the season, solve a Texas Tech defensive web that had limited opponents to 36.5 percent shooting and 58.7 points per game?
Compared to Michigan, which needed 15 minutes to score 10 points against Texas Tech on Thursday night, Gonzaga got off to a fast start. Hachimura scored seven of the Zags first nine points to break a sweat. But Texas Tech’s defense showed up. It would force nine first half turnovers, and make Gonzaga work hard for any scoring opportunity, a pattern that continued throughout the game.
Yet, Gonzaga managed to own a 37-35 lead at halftime, partly because the Zags out-rebounded Texas Tech 20-10 and also because they took advantage of their opportunities in transition, scoring 11 points on the fast break. The easy buckets helped them convert 50 percent of their field goals in the first half, while Texas Tech made 43.3 percent. Overall, the tempo was played in Gonzaga’s favor, something Texas Tech tried to correct in the second half.
“Our guys fought and were right there,” Few said. “I thought we had good rhythm in that first half and the game just came down to a couple plays down the stretch where they made big plays and we just didn’t quite answer.”
With pieces of nylon dangling around their necks, the Red Raiders (30-6) now venture to Minneapolis and the first Final Four appearance in school history.
“The Final Four is awesome and all that,” Beard said. “But the most cool thing is I get to coach these guys again.”