SAN DIEGO — The nation’s premier defense finally showed up — and at exactly the right time. 

At last, in the final minutes, Texas Tech’s renowned pressure took over, and Notre Dame’s magic run came to a sudden halt. 

The third-seeded Red Raiders held the No. 11 Fighting Irish without a field goal over the last 3:11 and survived, 59-53, in a West Region second-round game, sending the Big 12 school into a Sweet 16 showdown against No. 2 Duke in San Francisco. 

“They’re men,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. “When you watch the center jump, our bodies compared to their bodies, whew. … ”He added: “You can’t run anything against them.” 

Two Blake Wesley turnovers and a missed layup opened the door for Texas Tech, which closed on a 10-1 run. Notre Dame, the last team to get into the field, had survived a double-overtime thriller against Rutgers in the First Four in Dayton, Ohio, and upset No. 6 Alabama on Friday. But it didn’t have enough to hold off deeper, more physical Texas Tech. 

Two free throws from Kevin Obanor, a force with 15 points and 15 rebounds, gave the Red Raiders (27-9) the lead for good with 1:10 left, and Kevin McCullar put an exclamation point on the win with a dunk in the final seconds at jam-packed Viejas Arena. 

“We know one thing that will be consistent is our defense and effort,” said McCullar, who scored 14 points. “We want to be the hardest-playing team out there always.” 

For a large segment of the second half, it looked like Notre Dame might be playing its way into an unlikely Sweet 16. The 3-pointers were falling and Brey’s team had the lead. When Dane Goodwin (team-high 14 points) sank a jumper for the Irish’s ninth 3-pointer of the game with 5:21 left, they were just one shy of double digits. When they hit 10 or more, they are 15-1 on the season. But Notre Dame (24-11) didn’t hit another, and managed just five points the rest of the way, as it was held to 32 percent shooting from the field. 

“We knew down the stretch that we had to eliminate that or the game probably wouldn’t have gone our way,” McCullar said. “We made some big-time plays on the defensive end. It was just our will, we didn’t want to send the seniors home yet.” 

And so Texas Tech’s surprising season continued, with the school’s third trip to the second weekend in the last four tournaments. Expectations on the outside weren’t high for this team, following the departure of Chris Beard to Texas. But under first-year head coach Mark Adams, the Red Raiders overachieved behind their vice-grip defense, and now they get a crack at Duke on Thursdaywith a spot in the regional finals up for grabs. 

“I know at the beginning of the year no one even picked us or ranked us,” McCullar said. “We’re trying to prove people wrong and keep advancing as a family.”