Alex Condon #21 of the Florida Gators dunks the ball towards Joseph Tugler #11 of the Houston Cougars through the second half within the Nationwide Championship of the NCAA Males’s Basketball Match on the Alamodome on Monday in San Antonio, Texas. Florida defeated Houston to win its third title.

Alex Slitz/Getty Photographs

disguise caption

toggle caption

Alex Slitz/Getty Photographs

SAN ANTONIO – The College of Florida Gators are again on high of the faculty basketball world.

In entrance of a capability crowd of 66,602 on the Alamodome on Monday night time, the Gators pulled off yet one more dramatic comeback — this time towards the College of Houston by a razor-thin margin: 65-63.

The Cougars dominated the Gators at the beginning, resulting in the lowest-scoring first half of a males’s nationwide title sport since 2011.

That was the sport plan for Houston and Cougars Coach Kelvin Sampson, who’re recognized for his or her smash-mouth protection and “junkyard” model of play.

The Gators, who trailed by as a lot as 12, turned up their high-octane offense with seven minutes left within the sport and chipped away on the Cougar lead.

Walter Clayton Jr., held scoreless at halftime, got here alive with a drive to the rim previous the stout Houston protection. His first basket of the sport got here with eight minutes left within the second half.

The Gators mounted their comeback, taking the lead with 46 seconds remaining. It was the primary time that they had been forward since 8-6 early within the sport. Their scrappy protection pressured a turnover on the subsequent play, adopted by a clutch free throw, a last defensive stand, and a Houston turnover to safe the heart-stopping victory. Florida solely held the lead within the championship sport for simply over a minute.

Will Richard had 18 factors. Alex Condon added a dozen. It gave a lift to the crew that had relied closely on Clayton for many of the match. Clayton completed with 11 (he had 30 factors within the Elite 8 towards Texas Tech and 34 towards Auburn within the Ultimate 4) and was named the Most Excellent Participant.

“We have been saying all 12 months our motto is, ‘All of us can go!’ We have a crew full of fellows that may go. It is not nearly me,” Clayton mentioned after the sport about his sluggish begin. “We have a number of guys that may go get a bucket and do something. My crew helped me maintain it down till I used to be capable of go get a bucket.”

That is the Gators’ third NCAA males’s basketball championship. They beforehand received back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007.

Their coach on the time, Billy Donavan, was in attendance Monday night time as he was honored for being tapped for the 2025 Naismith Corridor of Fame class.

Florida’s Micah Handlogten (3) and Walter Clayton Jr. have fun after Florida beat Houston within the nationwide championship on the NCAA school basketball match, Monday, in San Antonio.

Stephanie Scarbrough/AP

disguise caption

toggle caption

Stephanie Scarbrough/AP

Gators coach Todd Golden, 39, turned the youngest males’s basketball coach to win an NCAA title since North Carolina State’s Jim Valvano in 1983.

“We did what we did all 12 months. We stayed the course,” Golden mentioned after the sport. “We have needed to come again fairly a bit this match however these guys have been elite with their composure and our younger guys within the entrance courtroom struggle like hell for these seniors daily. They compete and so they discover a solution to win. They’re winners.”

Florida, a No. 1 seed, was certainly one of a report 14 Southeastern Convention groups to make the lads’s match.

NPR’s Russell Lewis contributed reporting.