Keenan Evans was everything in Texas Tech’s second round win over Florida

March Madness games are supposed to be tense, tight and close for the duration. At their best, tournament games are pulse-pounding displays of college basketball on a high level where the stakes are clear and can be felt from the first whistle to the last. That was precisely the case in Texas Tech’s, 69-66 win over Florida.

March makes stars, and senior Keenan Evans has led the Red Raiders to this point, and got them into the second weekend. Along with Zhaire Smith, they paced the Red Raiders with 22 and 18, respectively. Evans also had three of Texas Tech’s six threes. Evans is the player that can lead this Texas Tech team on a Kemba Walker-esque run. A steely veteran presence that gets hot with his teammates at the right time. For the fourth time in school history, the Red Raiders are riding into the Sweet 16.

After Texas Tech went on a 10-0 first half run, the game tightened up to a March slugfest with little in the way of margin. Florida’s streakiness showed up in spades on this evening.

Florida was at one point 9-29 from the field at the 11:23 mark in the game. And it was that cooling off that doomed Florida in the end because the Gators never truly forced Texas Tech to play outside of their game.

The Red Raiders opened the second half on an 8-2 run, showing there was little chance they’d slowed down. A larger issue for Florida was the fact that they got in foul trouble early in the second half. Before even the 10-minute mark, point guard Chris Chiozza had four fouls and Texas Tech was in the double bonus. Chiozza was forced to sit for a large swath of the second half, and it hurt UF to be without its primary playmaker. Jalen Hudson stepped up with 23 points to carry the Gators, but it wasn’t enough.

Texas Tech was better, and they’re still dancing.