Florida ahead Alex Condon celebrates after their win in opposition to the Houston within the nationwide championship on the Last 4 of the NCAA school basketball event, Monday, April 7, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Picture/Brynn Anderson)
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SAN ANTONIO — Florida and Walter Clayton Jr. in some way overcame Houston’s spirit-crushing protection Monday evening to will out a 65-63 victory in an NCAA title-game thriller not determined till Clayton’s personal D stopped the Cougars from taking a game-winning shot on the buzzer.
Clayton completed with 11 factors, all within the second half, however what he’ll be remembered for many was getting Houston’s Emanuel Sharp to cease in the midst of his movement as he tried to go up for the game-winning 3 within the last seconds.
Clayton ran at him, Sharp dropped the ball and, unable to select it up lest he get known as for touring, watched it bounce there whereas the clock ticked to zero.
Will Richard had 18 factors to maintain the Gators (36-4) in it, they usually gained their third general title and first since 2007, this time led by third-year coach Todd Golden. The Cougars (35-5) and coach Kelvin Sampson had been denied their first championship.
This was a defensive brawl, and for many of the evening, Clayton acquired the worst of it.
He was 0 for 4 from the sector with out a level by way of the primary half. He didn’t rating till 14:57 remained within the recreation. He completed with one 3-pointer and, earlier than that, a pair of three-point performs that saved the Gators in hanging vary.
It was Florida’s protection, not Houston’s, that managed the ultimate minute.
After Alijah Martin made two free throws to place Florida forward 64-63 — its first lead since 8-6 — the Gators lured Sharp right into a triple-team within the nook, the place Richard acquired him to dribble the ball off his leg and out of bounds.
Florida made one free throw on the subsequent possession and that arrange the finale. The ball first went to L.J. Cryer — who led the Cougars with 19 factors. Blanketed by Richard, he threw to Sharp, who was transferring to identify up for a 3 when Clayton ran at him. That left him with no selection however to let the ball go.
Sampson, who designed a protection that held Florida underneath 70 factors for less than the second time this season, appeared on in shock.
As a substitute of the 69-year-old turning into the oldest coach to win the title, the 39-year-old Golden turns into the youngest since N.C. State’s Jim Valvano in 1983 to win all of it.
The Gators trailed by 12 factors early within the second half, and Clayton wasn’t the one one getting annoyed.
The Florida bench acquired a technical throughout a fast span of three foul calls in lower than a minute. Later within the second half, Houston’s smothering protection baited Rueben Chinyelu right into a technical after committing a foul.
However that wasn’t sufficient. Houston finally ends up on the similar place because the Phi Slama Jama groups of the Nineteen Eighties — in second place, however memorable.
This gut-wrenching loss got here two nights after the Cougars usual a wild comeback of their very own, from 14 down in opposition to Duke.
All three Last 4 video games had been determined down the stretch, none by greater than six. Any thought that the lads’s recreation had been overtaken by the more and more widespread girls will most likely go on maintain no less than for a 12 months.
The three girls’s Last 4 video games, capped by UConn’s blowout of South Carolina on Sunday, had been determined by a mean of 24.7 factors.
