Chris Collins was right. It was goaltending all the way.

The Northwestern coach was also wrong. At the worst time possible.

After not getting the call, Collins stomped onto the court and drew a technical foul with 4:54 left in Saturday’s West Region game in Salt Lake City, sucking life out of a frenetic comeback that fell short in a 79-73 loss to top-seeded Gonzaga.

What a strange, heartbreaking way to close out the school’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Adding to the awkwardness: The NCAA released a statement acknowledging the call was missed. Collins was sitting at the postgame news conference when he learned about it.

‘‘I appreciate the apology,’’ Collins said, the venom practically dripping off his tongue. ‘‘It makes me feel great.’’

Nigel Williams-Goss finished with 20 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists to power Gonzaga (34-1), which led by as many as 22 points in the first half, then saw the lead dwindle to 5 with a little more than five minutes left.

The arena, drenched in purple, was rocking, and the momentum was in Northwestern’s corner. The eighth-seeded Wildcats (24-12) got the ball down to Dererk Pardon for a point-blank shot that was on its way in. Gonzaga 7-footer Zach Collins reached through the net and deflected the ball out. No whistle blew. Gonzaga got the rebound. Collins ran onto the court, charged toward the ref, and gestured as if he were knocking a ball out of the hoop from the bottom.

An automatic ‘‘T.’’ The NCAA’s postgame statement also said Collins was hit with the technical for violating ‘‘bench decorum’’ rules by stepping onto the court with the ball in play.

On the other end, Williams-Goss made both free throws. Northwestern never got closer after that.

Regrets? If the coach had any, they weren’t apparent in the aftermath.

‘‘If I see a guy from another team put his hand through the rim and block a shot, I’m going to react to it if the play isn’t called,’’ Collins said. ‘‘I think all of you would. Of course. That cuts it to 3. We’re all emotional. We’re coming back from 20 down.’’

What a comeback it was. Bryant McIntosh scored 13 of his 20 points in the second half and Vic Law had 15 of his 18, as Northwestern finally found an answer for Gonzaga’s quick guards and smooth-as-can-be ball movement.

Law dunked an offensive rebound to cut the deficit to 63-58, and on the other end, Scottie Lindsey swatted Williams-Goss down low to give Northwestern the ball with a chance to draw within 3.

Pardon took a pass from McIntosh and went up strong against Zach Collins for what should have been 2 points. After the game, the Gonzaga center was still unclear about what, exactly, happened.

‘‘I thought I blocked the shot and they thought it was a foul,’’ he said. ‘‘We weren’t really worried about [that]. I honestly can’t really remember.’’

Zags coach Mark Few wasn’t pinning Gonzaga’s win on that single turn of events. But he more than understood the emotion of the moment.

‘‘You guys feel it and see it when it comes to these games,’’ he said. ‘‘You lose, your season’s over. You win, in Northwestern’s case, it’s probably the best thing they’ve done in the history of the school. You react spontaneously and stuff happens.’’

Gonzaga is onto its third straight Sweet 16, in search of the program’s first trip to the Final Four.

Painful as the late sequence was for the Wildcats, chances are it won’t be the only thing about this magical season that they remember.

‘‘To me, the second half is who that group was,’’ Chris Collins said.

But losing, especially that way?

‘‘It stinks. That’s the part of the tournament that’s really hard,’’ he said.

West Virginia 83, Notre Dame 71 — Led by Jevon Carter’s 24 points, the Mountaineers (28-8) knocked out the Fighting Irish in Buffalo to clinch their third Sweet 16 berth since 2010.

‘‘They thought of us as defensive players,’’ guard Tarik Phillip said. ‘‘But the coaching staff instilled a lot of confidence in us, helped us develop our offensive game, and we became pretty good offensive players.’’

West Virginia entered the tournament leading the nation in forcing 20.4 turnovers, while also ranking 15th in averaging 82 points. The Mountaineers topped 80 points for the 18th time, while also breaking the single-season school scoring record set by the Jerry West-led 1958-59 squad.

Daxter Miles scored 18 points, and Esa Ahmad had nine rebounds.

Carter led the way in matching a season high, while going 8 of 15, including 4 of 5 in 3-pointers. His last two 3-pointers finished fifth-seeded Notre Dame (26-10) as it attempted one final comeback bid.

Matt Ryan hit a 3-point basket in the right corner to cut West Virginia’s lead to 72-66 with 3:06 left. Carter responded by crossing through the middle and pulling up to hit a fall-away 3-pointer about 25 seconds later.

‘‘Just staying confident,’’ said Carter, the Big 12’s defensive player of the year. ‘‘When we step on the court, we feel like we can beat them. We got hot early and kept going from there. We keep that chip on our shoulder.’’

The Mountaineers continue to overcome the sting of last year’s first-round tournament collapse, when they lost to 14th-seeded Stephen F. Austin.

Now the Mountaineers are off to the Round of 16 for the first time since 2015, for the fourth time since coach Bob Huggins took over in 2007, and seventh time since the NCAA field expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

Notre Dame was denied a chance to reach the Elite Eight for a third consecutive year.

Bonzie Colson led the Fighting Irish in hitting 10 of 15 shots, scored 27 points and had eight rebounds.

Otherwise, the rest of the teammates were stymied.

Guard Matt Farrell was limited to 8 points, while V.J. Beachem hit 2 of 14 attempts and finished with 9 points.

‘‘Any time we thought we’d get this thing to 4 or get it to two possessions, somebody hit a big three or they got a putback,’’ Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. ‘‘It’s really spirit-breaking after a while.’’

Brey had to gamble in keeping Colson in after the star forward picked up his fourth foul with 9:47 left and with West Virginia up, 59-47. Colson scored 10 of Notre Dame’s next 14 points over a five-minute span.

‘‘It’s horrible,’’ said Colson, whose shoulders were heaving in emotion as he left the court. ‘‘It’s frustrating when you try to play your tail off and play with everything you have and just leave everything out there.’’

Xavier 91, Florida State 66 — Trevon Bluiett scored 29 points and Kaiser Gates came off the bench to contribute 14 as the the 11th-seeded Musketeers (23-13) pulled off their second upset with a rout of the third-seeded Seminoles (26-9) in Orlando.

 Xavier advances to the West Region semifinal, marking the second time in two years and the eighth time in program history it has made it to the Sweet 16.

 Florida State was the bigger program from a power conference, but Xavier came in as a tournament-tested team and it showed. The Musketeers dominated the bigger and more athletic Seminoles inside and then put the game out of reach with their superior 3-point shooting.

 Xavier shot nearly 65 percent from 3-point range, converting 11 of 17 from long range, while the Seminoles made just 4 of 21 3-point attempts for the game.

  The Seminoles, who figured to have the size advantage inside with 7-foot-1-inch Michael Ojo and 7-4 Christ Koumadje protecting the rim, were outscored in the paint, 36-26.

Arizona 69, Saint Mary’s 60 — Lauri Markkanen and Allonzo Trier combined for 30 points and the No. 2-seeded Wildcats rallied to defeat the No. 7 Gaels in Salt Lake City.

 Arizona (32-4) was on the ropes in the first half, but found life in the second half to pull away for the win. Arizona went on an 11-2 run sparked by Trier, who took over the second half. Trier scored 9 of those 11 points during the stretch that gave the Wildcats a 55-48 lead and Saint Mary’s (29-5) never led again.

 Markkanen finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds while Trier scored 14.

 Jock Landale had his 17th double-double of the season with 19 points and 11 rebounds for the Gaels.

Midwest Region

Purdue 80, Iowa State 76 — Vince Edwards and Caleb Swanigan combined for 41 points and 22 rebounds and the fourth-seeded Boilermakers (27-7) built a 19-point lead and then had to hold on to eliminate the fifth-seeded Cyclones (24-11) in Milwaukee. Deonte Burton scored 25 points for Purdue.

East Region

Florida 65, Virginia 39 — Devin Robinson had 14 points and 11 rebounds, the fifth double-double of his career, and the No. 4-seeded Gators (26-8) dominated the fifth-seeded Cavaliers in Orlando.

 Justin Leon added 14 points and nine rebounds for Florida, which advanced to the Sweet Sixteen for the fifth time in the last seven years.

 Florida held Virginia (23-11) to a season-low 17 points in the first half and 30.2 percent shooting on the night. The turning point came late in the first half, when the Gators started a 21-0 run.

South Region

Butler 74, Middle Tennessee 65 — Kelan Martin scored 19 points, and the Bulldogs (25-8) smothered the Blue Raiders (31-5) in Milwaukee.

 Butler is going to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2011, when it wrapped up back-to-back appearances in the national title game.

 Andrew Chrabascz added 15 points for fourth-seeded Butler, including a 3 with 3:25 left that snapped a 7-0 run for Middle Tennessee to get the lead back to 62-56.

 Conference USA player of the year JaCorey Williams finished with 20 points, but had to work hard for nearly every bucket for No. 12 seed Middle Tennessee. Giddy Potts, who averaged nearly 16 points a game this year, was held scoreless, going 0 of 8 from the field.