SAN ANTONIO (AP) — This ending was gritty and ugly, just the way Houston usually likes games.
Except it was Florida forcing bad shots and turnovers against the Cougars to finish off the national championship game Monday night.
“The game plan was the most physical team is going to win,” Gators guard Alijah Martin said.
The Cougars had four turnovers in the final 1:21 of their 65-63 loss, the last one ending the game.
“Just great down the stretch, how hard we played defensively,” Australian post Alex Condon said. “I think we got nine stops towards the end of the game. Yeah, it was just a team effort to get this win. It was crazy.”
Emanuel Sharp was unable to get off a 3-pointer with Walter Clayton Jr. running toward him and leaping with his left arm extended. Since the Houston guard was in the air himself, all he could do in was to let the ball fall to the floor — or get called for a travel when his feet came down.
With Sharp desperately screening Clayton in hopes that one of his teammates would be able to get the loose ball and get off a shot, Condon instead dived to the floor and reached out to get it with his hands while the clock was running out.
“He had an unbelievable shot contest,” Cougars guard L.J. Cryer said of Clayton. “He definitely made a winning play.”
Houston trailed only 63 seconds all night, and yet fell short of its first national championship.
For Florida, it was a beautiful ugly. The Gators overcame a 12-point deficit after halftime for their third national championship, in their first title game since winning back-to-back in 2006 and 2007.
The Gators hadn't led since 8-6 until Alijah Martin hit two free throws with 46 seconds left to go up 64-63. That came right after Cryer was stripped underneath the Houston basket and Condon came away with the ball.
Sharp also had a turnover when Will Richard had a steal with 26 seconds left that led to another free throw. Houston then called timeout with 19 seconds remaining to set up a final play.
Cryer got the ball to Sharp, who had no chance to complete his jumper with Clayton charging toward him.
“We had a chance to win, just didn’t get a shot off,” said Houston big man J’Wan Roberts, who part of 149 wins while playing in five seasons since getting to Houston six years ago.
When the buzzer sounded, Sharp remained crouched on the court near that spot for an extended period. He was consoled by teammate Ja’Vier Francis — and Clayton, like Sharp from the Tampa Bay area.
The Cougars had only nine turnovers in the entire game, but four came after Cryer’s putback of his own miss with 2:29 left for a 62-60 lead.
"I'm just going through those last two possessions more than anything else. Incomprehensible in that situation we couldn't get a shot, couldn't get a shot," Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson said. "But Florida was doing a good job running us off the line and forcing us to score it. We just didn't do a very good job of finishing some shots."
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here.
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