San Antonio – With the championship at stake, Houston could not shoot. The horn sounded. Florida celebrated when Confetti fell from the ceiling.
The Gats, an offensive giant throughout the season, won their first national championship in 18 years with Defense, against the school known for suffocating their opponent.
And it was Gaters Superstar Guard, and the former prominent of the University of Iona, Walter Clayton Jr., who did the work that will always live in the final Four Lore.
Clayton left Houston Emanuel Sharp guard, interrupting his possible triple winning game.
But Sharp had already left his feet.
He dropped the ball in an attempt to keep the play alive, but could not touch it, otherwise it would be a travel rape.
Clayton’s teammate, Alex Condon, divered by the loose ball when the precious seconds moved away.
He gave it to Clayton when the bell rang.
“The feeling, simply surreal,” said Clayton, the most prominent player of the Final Four, after this pulsating 65-63 victory limited a memorable weekend. “It’s a crazy sensation. I can’t explain it.”
It was similar to Florida’s second round victory over the number 9 of Connecticut and Elite Eight Victory over Texas Tech, games in which the GATS surpassed by large sections.
Clayton was blank in the first half for the second time throughout the season and did not achieve his first field goal until 7:54 remained.
Houston had control, having an advantage of 12 points at the beginning of the second half. But Florida has developed a special ability to meet against elite opponents.
They did it again.
“He is a son of embedded in our DNA,” said Florida coach Todd Golden, who at 39 became the young coach to win a title, the legendary Jim Valvano (37) in 1983. “They did what they always do. He advanced.”
When leaving a dominant 34 -point performance on Saturday, Clayton came to life late to score the 11 or his points after halftime, and the two free throws of Alijah Martin with 46.5 seconds to cool the gators the advantage forever.
Houston (35-5) did not score during the finals 2:05 and committed four ball losses in that period, two come ready in the last 26.6 seconds.
Will Richard scored 18 points for Florida (36-4) and Condon added 12 points and seven rebounds.
LJ Cryer scored 19 points to lead Houston, who was a hero at 31.3 percent of shots after part time and made only 6 of 25 attempts of 3 points.
Fighting against Houston’s pressure, the crawls committed nine ball losses in the first half and never established offensively.
Only three went down at the break, most due to the 14 points of Richard and four triples, and Houston’s struggles (2 of 14).
The Coupars left the doors on fire after the intermediate, cheating at an outbreak of 11-2 to push the advantage to 12.
Cryer had seven of those points, while Clayton remained without score.
Finally, he climbed the board with two 5:03 free throws in the second half.
In the following possession, however, a medium range sweater was lost and it was tasks. Houston’s advantage returned to 11.
With Clayton at the bank, Florida finally found an appearance of rhythm.
A quick 8-0 race, crowned by an acrobatic play of 3 points Thomas Haugh, cut the deficit to three.
A few minutes later, Clayton finished a leffty impulse for his first 32:06 field goal after the Opening Council.
After a waiting time, he sank the free kick. Florida was just at 48 and 7:54 remained in the university basketball season.
“I think we have elite confidence in those situations,” said Condon. “We seemed to be in those narrow situations a lot in this tournament.”
The game was tied four times the rest of the road, establishing a dramatic end for the latter four of all time.
In the last minutes, Florida did not let Houston shoot. It was what gats won this championship.
“We have a lot of credit for our offensive because we have such an explosive leg throughout the year, the leg one of, if not the two main offenses in the United States throughout the year,” Golden said. “We also have a Top 10 defense throughout the year.”
