Houston led for all but 1:03 Monday night. The loss denied Kelvin Sampson and the Cougars their first NCAA title.
SAN ANTONIO — This ending was gritty and ugly, just the way Houston usually likes games.
Except it was Florida forcing bad shots and turnovers against Houston to finish off the national championship game Monday night.
The Cougars had four turnovers in the final 1:21 of their 65-63 loss, the last one ending the game.
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 hopes of avoiding a turnover was to let the ball fall to the floor.
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, Alex Condon instead dived to the floor and reached out to get his hands on it as the clock ran out.
Houston trailed only 64 seconds all night, and yet fell short of its first national championship.
For Florida, it was a beautiful ugly. The Gators won 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 L.J. Cryer was stripped of the ball underneath the Houston basket and Condon came away with it.
Sharp had a turnover when Will Richard had a steal with 26 seconds left that led to another free throw. Houston then called timeout with 19.7 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.
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.
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.
Highlights
Joseph Tugler scored the first points of the game, giving Houston a 2-0 lead:
Ja’Vier Francis gave the Cougars another two-point lead about 5 minutes into the game with this monster slam dunk:
Milos Uzan regained the lead for Houston with this nice running floater:
Mylik Wilson capped off a steal with a nice layup to increase Houston’s early lead.
After Florida tied the game at 21, LJ Cryer put the Cougars back on top with his first points of the game.
After a UH block, Houston increased the lead with a nice transition alley-oop:
Cryer pushed Houston’s lead to six with about 1:30 left in the first half:
Cryer scored Houston’s first points of the second half by knocking down a step-back three-pointer:
Another Cryer longball put Houston up double-digits for the first time in the game:
J’Wan Roberts added to the Cougars’ lead with a nice inside move:
After a couple of buckets by Florida, Roberts got the UH lead back up to 10 with this basket:
Florida cut into the Houston lead with an and-1 layup following a block:
Cryer ended an 8-0 Florida run with this three-pointer:
Houston took a two-point lead with about 2:35 left in the game:
Houston had a chance to tie or take the lead in the game but wasn’t able to get a shot off as the clock ran out: