Despite a very slow start to the night, Walter Clayton Jr. still finished with 11 points and led the Gators to their comeback win. (Jamie Schwaberow/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
(Jamie Schwaberow via Getty Images)
Florida led for just 64 seconds at the Alamodome on Monday night. Thankfully, it was the right 64 seconds.
And, thanks to a big finish from star Walter Clayton Jr., the Gators are national champions.
Clayton helped lead Florida to a huge comeback to stun Houston and grab a 65-63 win in the national championship game in San Antonio, Texas. Clayton, despite a very slow start in the title game that saw him go more than 25 minutes without scoring, was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player.
Clayton finished with 11 points and seven assists in the win for the Gators. He shot just 3-of-10 from the field and 1-of-7 from behind the arc — though his lone 3-pointer came at the perfect time to keep the Gators within striking distance down the stretch. He had five rebounds and a steal, too.
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In total, Clayton averaged 22.5 points and went a perfect 11-of-11 from the free throw line in the Final Four.
“We’ve got a team full of guys that can go, it ain’t just about me,” Clayton said on CBS. “We’ve got multiple guys on this [team] that can go get a bucket and do anything. So, my team held me down until I was able to put the ball in the basket.”
Clayton dropped 34 points and went 5-of-8 from behind the arc in Florida’s win over Auburn in the Final Four on Saturday night. That followed a 30-point outing in the Gators’ Elite Eight win over Texas Tech, too. That made him the first player since Larry Bird to post back-to-back 30-point games this deep into the NCAA tournament.
The Gators, after trailing by as many as 12 in the second half, clawed their way back into the game and made one wild defensive stand to grab the two-point win over the Cougars on Monday night. That marked the program’s first national championship since 2007.
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Will Richard led the Gators with 18 points and eight rebounds, and he largely kept them in the game in the first half when he drained four 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes. Alex Condon added 12 points and seven rebounds, too.
L.J. Cryer led the Cougars with 19 points and six rebounds in the loss. He was the only Houston player to hit double figures, and he accounted for four of their six made 3-pointers. The Cougars are now 0-3 all time in national championship games.
Clayton averaged 18.5 points per game this season while leading the Gators to a top seed in the NCAA tournament and an SEC tournament title. He was projected to go No. 25 overall in the NBA Draft later this summer to the Orlando Magic in Yahoo Sports’ Kevin O’Connor’s latest mock draft.
While it wasn’t the best title game performance out there, Clayton got the job done and is ending his college career with a title. That’s all that really matters.
