Although being down by as many as 12 points in the second half, the Florida Gators were able to chip away and upend the Houston Cougars 65-63, in route to their third National Title.
Houston had a chance at the end of the game but aggressive defense by Walter Clayton Jr. led to a turnover and a Gators victory.
Florida only led for a total of 64 seconds. This marked the fourth comeback in six March Madness wins for the Gators (36-4).
Houston could not get a shot off on their last two possessions, frustrating head coach Kelvin Sampson. Sampson said: “Clayton made a great play. But that’s why you’ve got to shot fake and get into the paint. Two’s fine.”
During Florida’s locker room celebration, Gators head coach Todd Golden gave an epic passionate speech.
“Each and every one of you guys should be incredibly proud of what you just accomplished,” Golden said. “Every time, it doesn’t matter how. We can outscore people, we can get to a hundo. Tonight, we had to do it a different way. We played an incredibly tough, gritty, great program. We had to win an ugly game.”
Then he took it up a notch…
“What we just did, nobody can ever take that away from us. Each and every one of you guys are national f------ champions.”
This is Florida’s first basketball national championship since Billy Donovan won back to back in 2006-2007.
Florida was led by Will Richard who had 18 points, while the (35-5) Houston Cougars were led by L.J. Cryer’s 19 points.
NBA Draft Hopefuls
Florida- PF- Alex Condon- 12 points, 7 rebounds
Florida- PG- Walter Clayton Jr.- 11 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds
Florida- SG- Alijah Martin- 7 points, 1 rebound
Houston- PG- Milos Uzan- 6 points, 5 rebounds
(photo courtesy of Today.com)