Heartbreak for Houston as Florida Rallies to NCAA Championship Win

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On Florida’s side, the lead-up to Monday’s national championship game almost entirely centered on Walter Clayton Jr. The All-American guard was on a run not seen since Shabazz Napier and Kemba Walker carried UConn to a pair of titles in 2011 and 2014.

It was immediately evident that Houston’s scouting report focused on Clayton too.

After scoring a combined 64 points in his previous two games, Clayton didn’t score his first point until the 14:57 mark of the second half against the Cougars. He didn’t make his first field goal until there was 7:54 left in the game. It was the recipe for a comfortable Houston championship win, inevitably continuing the narrative about the Cougars’ top-ranked defense.

But Florida’s supporting cast kept the Gators in the game just long enough for Clayton to get going in the second half, erasing a 12-point deficit on their way to a 65-63 win. Clayton was selected the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player after finishing with 11 points and seven assists Monday night.

“Our motto is, we all can go,” Clayton said. “We’ve got a team full of guys that can go. It ain’t just about me. My team held me down until I was able to put the ball in the basket. Shout out to them boys.”

Florida has grown comfortable coming from behind in this tournament — this was the third straight game the Gators managed to rally from a large second-half deficit. They were down nine points against Auburn early in the second half of Saturday’s Final Four matchup and were down by as many as 10 points against Texas Tech in the Elite Eight.

With their rally from 12 points Monday night, the Gators became the first champion in the past 20 years to overcome at least a nine-point deficit in all three of those rounds, according to ESPN Research.

The national championship was Florida’s third since 2006, making 39-year old Todd Golden the youngest head coach to win the title since Jim Valvano (37) in 1983. It was also the SEC’s first national championship since Kentucky beat Kansas in 2012.

Will Richard led Florida with 18 points, making four 3-pointers in the first half to keep the Gators within striking distance. Houston guard L.J. Cryer finished with a game-high 19 points.

The areas that carried Houston all season on the offensive end — 3-point shooting and offensive rebounding — were nowhere to be found in the first 20 minutes. The Cougars shot just 2-for-14 from beyond the arc in the first half, and though they grabbed six offensive rebounds, they didn’t score a second-chance point.

Houston coach Kelvin Sampson was getting huge contributions from bench players Mylik Wilson and Ja’Vier Francis. The two combined for six points in 22 minutes in the semifinal against Duke — but had 13 points in a combined 24 minutes in the first half against Florida.

Florida turned it over nine times in the opening 20 minutes and Clayton was shut out in the first half. It was only the third time all season he had a scoreless half, with the previous two both coming against Tennessee. Houston was aggressively hard-hedging on ball screens, forcing the ball out of Clayton’s hands early. The Cougars weren’t letting him get into a rhythm going left, where he found so much success during the tournament. He did have five assists in the first half.

Instead, it was Richard who singlehandedly kept Florida in the game. He went into the break with 14 points — after shooting 1-for-6 and scoring seven points in a win over Auburn on Saturday.

The big question going into halftime was whether either team could get hot from the perimeter and begin to open up the game on the offensive end.

But after the break, it turned into a game of whistles, an endless parade of players going to the free throw line. Florida committed five fouls in the first 3:39 of the second half, plus a technical foul on the bench. The next several whistles went on Houston, leading to 12 combined fouls in the first 6:15 after halftime.

The game needed a spark, and the two stars who carried Houston and Florida to the title game obliged. Cryer had only five points in the first half but 14 after the break, making three 3-pointers. Clayton scored his first points at the free throw line, but then had two three-point plays to provide Florida with much-needed momentum.