The Florida Gators won the NCAA men’s basketball championship on Monday, defeating the Houston Cougars in a heart-stopping contest that went all the way down to the final play.
The Gators led for a grand total of 64 seconds in the game and trailed by as much as 12 with 16:24 to go in the second half. Houston’s vaunted defense held Florida and their star guard Walter Clayton Jr. in check for much of the game.
But, as they had so often in this tournament, the Gators came back. Slowly but surely throughout the second half, head coach Todd Golden and his team reeled in the Cougars. As the game got to crunchtime, Florida went on a 15-3 run to come all the way back and tie the game.
It wouldn’t be until the final minute that the Gators took the lead for the first time since the opening minutes of the contest. And, in a battle of Florida’s high-flying offense against Houston’s elite defense, it was the Gators making the key defensive plays in the final minutes to seal the championship.
With 19 seconds left, Houston leisurely took the ball up the court, with Cougars head coach Kelvin Sampson content to hold the ball for the last shot of the game. Point guard Milos Uzan probed the perimeter but couldn’t find and opening and passed to LJ Cryer at the top of the key. With Florida guard Will Richard draped all over him, Cryer dished the ball off to Emanuel Sharp with just five seconds left on the clock. Sharp went up for a deep 3-point attempt, but with Clayton flying at him, he pulled the shot down and put the ball on the floor.
Sharp couldn’t touch the ball again without a double-dribble being called and the ball bounced three agonizing times with no one else able to make it to the loose ball and get a shot off.
Gators forward Alex Condon was the first to dive on the loose ball and the final horn sounded before either team could gain control, cementing Florida’s third-ever national championship, and first since 2007.
