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Texas Tech 75, Gonzaga 69

No. 3 Texas Tech Upsets No. 1 Gonzaga for First Trip to Final Four

No. 3 Texas Tech is headed to the Final Four after upsetting No. 1 Gonzaga, 75-69, on Saturday.Credit...Robert Hanashiro/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Texas Tech men’s basketball team carries around a mantra like a chip on its shoulder: The secret’s in the dirt. It is a particularly appealing message — that success is usually found by getting your hands in the muck — especially to the ears of basketball mutts and vagabonds, and a star whose own father questioned why he would want to stay home in Lubbock.

So when a moment of truth arrived on Saturday, and top-seeded Gonzaga — with its free-flowing offense and shotmakers all over the court — readied for a final charge, the Red Raiders found success by doing what they do best: digging in.

The Red Raiders, leaning on their defense as they have all season, clamped down on Gonzaga and rode a pair of ice-cold 3-pointers from Davide Moretti and some cool free-throw shooting to a 75-69 victory in the West Region final of the N.C.A.A. tournament.

The win sends No. 3 Texas Tech to the Final Four in Minneapolis, the first trip in team history.

“We did it, baby,” Jarrett Culver said as he embraced his doubting father, Hiawatha, before cutting down the nets with his teammates and retreating to the locker room where the players danced to Lil Yachty’s “Minnesota.”

The Red Raiders had hit a high-water mark last season when they reached a regional final before losing to Villanova, the eventual champion. With Zhaire Smith, a lottery pick in the N.B.A. draft, and five seniors departed, they were unlikely candidates to return.

But the addition of two graduate transfers — guard Matt Mooney from South Dakota and forward Tariq Owens from St. John’s — and the development of the sophomores Moretti and Culver helped the Red Raiders to a Big 12 co-championship, their first in 23 years.

They seamlessly blended into the system of Coach Chris Beard, a former assistant under Bob Knight who cut his teeth as acoach at the junior college and Division II levels before getting his break at Arkansas-Little Rock.

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Rui Hachimura (21) led Gonzaga with 22 points in his team’s loss. He is a key player N.B.A. scouts have been watching.Credit...Harry How/Getty Images

A summer retreat, at a camp in West Texas that was out of cellphone range, helped the players bond, and a closed-door scrimmage with Houston and a strong December showing against Duke at Madison Square Garden forged their belief in themselves.

But their resolve was tested on Saturday. Gonzaga, with its ball screens, took advantage of switches to get the ball to its two N.B.A.-bound big men: Brandon Clarke and Rui Hachimura. And the Zags successfully pushed the pace, surging to a 37-35 lead at halftime.

In the second half, Texas Tech came out in a zone for a few possessions, then rarely switched and resisted the temptation to run with the Zags, controlling the pace to its liking. Then, with the score tied at 58-58, the Red Raiders defense clamped down — holding the Zags without a basket for nearly four minutes.

Meanwhile, Mooney snaked into the paint for a basket that put Texas Tech ahead, 60-58, and Moretti sank a 3-pointer to extend the advantage to 63-58. But Clarke narrowed the gap to 63-60 with two free throws, bringing the Zags’ sizable crowd into the game.

As Culver dribbled the shot clock down at the top of the arc, he glanced to his right and gave a knowing look to Moretti. With the defenders beginning to pinch Culver as the shot clock ran down, he flicked a pass to Moretti, who never hesitated, sinking another 3-pointer to put the Red Raiders ahead, 66-60, with 1:50 to play.

Gonzaga never got the ball back with a chance to get even.

“I thought he was going to pass me and I was ready for it. That’s the chemistry between us,” said Moretti, who watched Villanova’s buzzer-beating championship in 2016 late at night on his iPad at his home in Bologna, Italy. “He knows when I want the ball, and I know when he’s going to pass it to me.”

The Zags, who were the nation’s most efficient offensive team, made only 12 of 33 in the second half, and they turned the ball over 16 times for the game.

“They are really good at reaching, poking and digging things out there,” Gonzaga Coach Mark Few said of the Texas Tech defense. “This is the best team I’ve ever had for taking care of the ball. So it’s real. That defense is real.”

So, too, are the Red Raiders, who will not only continue looking for secrets in the dirt, but in Minneapolis, too.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section SP, Page 4 of the New York edition with the headline: Texas Tech Digs Deep and Ousts No. 1 Gonzaga, Reaching Final Four. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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