By Alec Millender

Sports Capital Journalism Program

SAN ANTONIO — In a gritty, back-and-forth national championship game, the Florida Gators rallied from a 12-point second-half deficit to defeat the Houston Cougars 65-63 on Monday night, earning their third NCAA men’s national basketball championship and depriving the Cougars of the school’s first title.

Florida (36-4) tied the third-largest comeback in championship game history. The Gators had overcome deficits of nine points in the semifinal victory over Auburn and 10 points against Texas Tech in the Elite Eight. The Cougars led 42-30 with 16:24 left, following an 8-0 run that was energized by a controversial foul call and subsequent technical foul.

Houston (35-5) had not lost a game in regulation time since November 9, and for much of the night appeared headed for a championship that would have been the first of Sampson’s career.

Things looked bleak for the Gators, especially with star guard Walter Clayton Jr. held scoreless for the first 25:03 of the contest. He finally broke through with a field goal at the 7:54 mark and scored nine points in the final stretch to spark Florida’s comeback.

But Clayton, Florida’s leading scorer whose 11 points were 7.5 beneath his average, saved the championship with an alert defensive maneuver in the final seconds. As Houston’s Emanuel Sharp tried to pull up for a 3-point shot with just over four seconds to play, Clayton’s tight contest, with his right arm extended, forced Sharp to drop the ball. As Sharp avoided touching it to prevent a traveling violation, Florida forward Alex Condon dove to the floor, beat Houston’s Ja’Vier Francis to the loose ball, and secured it as the final horn sounded and a Gator celebration began.

“We work on it in practice,” Clayton said of his contest on the final play. “Closing out, jumping to the side so you don’t foul the shooter.”

Condon, who finished with 12 points and seven rebounds, described the moment he secured the win: “Just diving on it, hearing the buzzer go was a crazy feeling. Didn’t feel real for sure.”

The turnover was the fourth for the Cougars in the last 1:21 and the second for Sharp in the last 26 seconds. “Incomprehensible in that situation we couldn’t get a shot,” said Houston coach Kelvin Sampson.

Florida became the 10th school in tournament history with three national championships. Gator coach Todd Golden, at the age of 39, became the ninth-youngest coach to win a championship, and the youngest since Jim Valvano’s North Carolina State Wolfpack beat Houston in 1983.

Clayton Jr. was voted Most Outstanding Player, but on a night when he was limited as a focus of Houston’s defense, he had help.

Will Richard delivered a clutch performance, finishing with 18 points on 5-of-10 shooting, including 4-of-7 from three-point range. He added eight rebounds and two assists.

Richard, a steady presence throughout the tournament, said: “Just trying to make plays to help us stay in the game, help us give ourselves the best chance to win.”

Florida, known for its up-tempo pace, beat Houston at its own game—tough, physical, possession-based basketball. Despite committing nine turnovers to Houston’s two in the first half, the Gators stayed composed. While Houston attempted 16 more shots, Florida dominated the free-throw line, finishing 81 percent from the charity stripe.

After a back-and-forth final five-minute stretch, Florida’s Alijah Martin was fouled with 46 seconds remaining and Florida down one. He knocked down both free throws to give the Gators the one-point lead. After a turnover by Sharp, Denzel Aberdeen was fouled with 19 seconds left and hit one of two free throws to push the lead to 65-63.

Reflecting on his clutch free throws, Aberdeen said: “I thought the first one was going in. I was pretty mad, but I had to keep my composure. Told myself I gotta make this. I gotta make this.”

Aberdeen gave Florida valuable minutes off the bench, sparking the comeback and playing a key defensive role.

“I just wanted to come in and do what I had to do to help my team win,” Aberdeen said. “Mostly on the defensive end. We were down 10. Offensively, being aggressive, doing what I do.”

“When (Clayton) came out, I thought Zel (Denzel Aberdeen) stepped up, gave us great minutes, gave Walter some rest so we could finish,” said Golden.

Florida edged Houston on the glass, 40-39, and held the Cougars to just 63 points.

“We got nine straight stops in the middle of the second half,” Golden said. “We held them scoreless the last two minutes and 20 seconds—Walter, great closeout, and Condon, great hustle play to win the game….

“Our guys knew that it wasn’t going to be easy. Didn’t panic when it got tough. They did a great job never getting too high, never getting too low. When we went down 12 in the second half, we stayed the course.”

Golden emphasized Florida’s second-half defensive effort. The Gators held Houston to 31.3% shooting in the second half and had three steals in a span of 55 seconds in the decisive moments.

“I thought Houston got the better of us in the first half,” Golden said. “It was really just a disparity in the turnover count. We had nine—I think they had two. In the second half, we had four, they had seven. Our defense won us the game tonight.”

Houston ability to control the pace was creating a problem for the Gators. “They were dictating the tempo,” Golden said. “We want to get out in transition. We weren’t able to, especially in the first half. When we’re at our best, we’re getting stops, clean rebounds, getting out and running. But at halftime, the only thing that really stood out that was a big issue was our turnovers. We just needed to calm down.”

“Obviously, Houston is the best defensive team in America by the numbers. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy to score on them… But in the second half, we knocked down our free throws and took much better care of the basketball.”

Florida’s path to the title was one of the toughest ever for a No. 1 seed since the tournament expanded in 1985. The Gators are now 3-1 in national title games, while Houston falls to 0-3.

The Cougars were left with the painful knowledge that they had held Gators 20.3 points below Florida’s average and held the lead for 30:44. “We guarded ‘em,” Sampson said. “We held that team to 65 points. Thought if we held Duke to under 70, we’d have a good chance to win. I felt like if we held Florida under 70, we’d have a good chance to win.

“Saturday we found a way to win,” Sampson said. “Tonight maybe not so much.”