BOSTON _ Having advanced further than any Texas Tech team ever has, the Red Raiders are one win away from returning to Texas for the Final Four.
Getting a big lift from its bench and its defense, Tech advanced to Sunday's East Region title game with a 78-65 win over second-seeded Purdue. As he has throughout the tournament and for so much of the season, senior point guard Keenan Evans took over when it mattered. He had just six points 1-of-6 shooting when he nailed a 15-footer to put Tech up 56-51 with seven minutes to play. From that point, he delivered 10 points down the stretch to cement the victory.
With the win the Big 12 now has three teams playing this weekend with a chance to go to the Final Four, with Kansas and Kansas State joining Tech.
Tech (27-9) advances to face East top seed Villanova (33-4), which eliminated West Virginia, 90-78, in the first game Friday at TD Garden. The Wildcats lead Division I in scoring at 87 points a game. The winner advances to the Final Four in San Antonio.
To have a chance, Tech will need to duplicate the formula that worked so well against Purdue in slowing Villanova. The Red Raiders never really let Purdue, a team with a bevy of 3-point shooters, develop much of an offensive rhythm.
In all the gritty, gutty stats, Tech held the upper hand. The Red Raiders had a 15-2 edge in points off turnovers and 17-11 advantage on second-chance points.
The Tech bench outscored Purdue 33-6 with senior Zach Smith delivering 14 points and five rebounds in 23 minutes.
Tech needed the bench production. Freshman Jarrett Culver, the team's second scorer, had just two points on 1-of-5 shooting.
Purdue was without 7-2 senior starting center Isaac Haas, who suffered a broken elbow earlier in the tournament after several days of will-he, won't-he drama. Despite an all-nighter by the Purdue engineering department to design a brace that eventually met NCAA standards, Purdue coach Matt Painter decided Haas did not have enough mobility in the elbow to play. Haas seemed to wince as well shooting a pregame layup.
His backup, 7-3 freshman Matt Haarms, scored Purdue's first basketball but otherwise was a non-factor. He came up holding his elbow with a minute to play in the first half after crashing to the floor but returned in the second half. He finished four points and three rebounds.
After trailing by as much seven early, Tech closed the first half on a 10-0 run to lead 30-25.
It wasn't exactly pretty.
Purdue went more than 7{ minutes with scoring at one point and Texas Tech had a six-minute drought.
For all the offensive struggles, Tech got a big lift from its bench, which outscored Purdue, 16-2 in the first 20 minutes.
Stevenson delivered seven points, while freshman Davide Moretti added five and Zach Smith contributed four.
