SAN FRANCISCO — Arkansas is going to the Elite Eight for the third consecutive March.

To get there, the No. 4 seed Razorbacks had to get past the team the NCAA selection committee considered the most elite team in the field, No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga, which they defeated 74-68 Thursday night at the Chase Center.

For Gonzaga, which was in the Sweet 16 for the seventh consecutive year, it was a bitter defeat. The Zags failed at everything they had excelled at all season: Shooting the basketball.

Gonzaga entered the game leading the nation in both scoring (87.8 points per game) and field-goal percentage (52.6-percent) this season. 

It scored 19 fewer points than their average and shot 37.5 percent.  Arkansas (28-8) muddied up the game beautifully, never letting the Zags find any rhythm. 

The Razorbacks, who play the winner of Thursday’s late game between Duke and Texas Tech on Saturday for a berth into the Final Four, made all the plays in crunch time to secure the victory. 

The Razorbacks took a game-high 59-50 lead on a JD Notae 3-pointer with 6:34 remaining in the game and hung on from there. 

Gonzaga (28-4) closed the lead to 68-65 with 16.5 seconds remaining, but never got closer. Arkansas made its free throws when they were needed most. Chris Lykes, a 5′-7″ guard, made both ends of a one-and-one to give the Razorbacks a 70-65 lead with 15.8 seconds left, and they were the only points he scored all game. 

Two more free throws by Davonte Davis with 8.1 seconds left gave Arkansas a 72-65 lead and clinched it. An exclamation-point dunk by Au’Diese Toney with one second remaining closed it out officially. 

Notae led Arkansas with 21 points on 9-of-29 shooting from the field, including 2-of-12 from 3-point range. Tret Wade had 15 points, as did Jaylin Williams, who also had 12 rebounds and had a big part in fouling out Gonzaga’s big man, Chet Holmgren, who left with 3:29 remaining, with 11 points and 14 rebounds. 

The only bright spot for Gonzaga was Drew Timme, who led all scorers with 25 points. 

When the game was over, Arkansas coach Eric Musselman made a beeline into the stands to hug his mother, Kris, who was watching her son coach the Razorbacks for the first time. She’d flown up from her home in San Diego on Wednesday.