SAN ANTONIO – It was a rock fight. An ugly, physical struggle played at the pace of a rush hour traffic jam on nearby I-37.
Exactly the way Houston likes it.
The Cougars imposed their will on Florida and did everything they set out to do from the opening tip of Monday’s national championship game to the final buzzer.
Everything, that is, except win.
Even though the Gators were held 20 points under their season average, finished just 6-of-24 from three-point range, gave up 15 offensive rebounds and saw leading scorer Walter Clayton Jr. held without a field goal for the first 32 minutes, Todd Golden’s team still found a way to persevere.
Florida won 65-63 to earn its first national championship since going back-to-back in 2006-07. But the Gators did it the hard way, trailing by as many as 12 in the second half and holding the lead for only 63 seconds.
“I was definitely concerned,” Golden said with one of the Alamodome nets draped around his neck. “They were dictating the tempo. We want to get out in transition. We were not able to, especially in the first half. When we’re at our best, we’re getting stops, clean rebounds, getting out and running in transition, finding baskets. That was concerning.”
While the tempo clearly wasn’t to Florida’s liking, Golden’s biggest concern at halftime was the way his team had handled it. The Gators turned the ball over nine times in the first 20 minutes and didn’t have a single fast-break point.
But the silver lining to that dark cloud is that the Cougars were only able to turn the Florida mistakes into only four points. And even after shooting 37 percent from the floor and going 2-of-14 from beyond the arc, the Gators trailed just 31-28 at the break.
“I thought we had some uncharacteristic turnovers. A majority of those were not forced,” Golden said. “They were just either poor decisions or being sped up offensively. We just needed to calm down.”
The Gators, who were held below 70 points for just the second time this season, accomplished that goal in the second half by limiting their turnovers to just four and by finding a way to get Clayton – a 6-foot-3 senior guard who was held without a field goal for the first 32:15 – involved in the scoring.
Even then, it took a while for the progress to show on the scoreboard.
Houston used an early rush of fouls, including a technical on the Florida bench, along with some hot shooting from star LJ Cryer to send the Gators to the brink by building a 12-point advantage with 16:24 left.
That’s when Florida started to beat the Cougars at their own game.
With defense.
The Gators recorded nine consecutive stops at one point during their comeback. And they held Houston scoreless for the final 2:20, punctuating the performance by forcing Cougars guard Emanuel Sharp into a panicked turnover on the game’s final possession.
“It was our defense. It was stops. It was finding a way to be able to get some run-outs. (Clayton) saw the ball go through the net with some free throws and the and-one layup,” Golden said. “I thought that loosened him up a little bit. After that … we were able to flip the game and the momentum a little bit. That’s obviously incredibly challenging to do against an opponent like Houston. But we’re pretty dang good also and we found a way to do it.”
Finding a way is something that became the Gators’ trademark this postseason. They trailed with under 3:00 left in four of their six tournament victories.
When 6-foot-2 senior guard Aljah Martin put Florida ahead 64-63 on two free throws with 46 seconds remaining, it marked the Gators’ first lead since it was 8-6 just before the first TV timeout.
“We got in the huddle at one point when we were down and said, ‘We’re good,’” said 6-foot-11 sophomore Alex Condon, who had 12 points, 7 rebounds and 4 steals. “We just have a lot of confidence in each other.
“We showed up. We never blinked. We’re national champions.”
