The Gators looked cooked. Down 12. Their All-American guard scoreless. The crowd inside a hangar-like 70,000-seat football stadium, just 198 miles down the road from the University of Houston campus, was a deafening sea of scarlet red.
And yet Florida found a way. In one of the most dramatic NCAA men’s championship games in recent memory, the Gators and Walter Clayton Jr overcame Houston’s suffocating defense to pull off an astonishing 65–63 victory on Monday night – a national title game thriller not put to bed until Florida’s own defense sealed it at the buzzer.
Clayton finished with 11 points, all in the second half, but what he’ll be remembered for most was the final moment: sprinting at Houston’s Emanuel Sharp, who was trying to spot up for a potential game-winning three. Clayton’s closeout forced Sharp to stop mid-motion, and in that moment of hesitation, Sharp dropped the ball. He couldn’t pick it up again without traveling. It bounced away while the clock ticked to zero and the Gators stormed the court in celebration.
YOUR NATIONAL CHAMPIONS: THE FLORIDA GATORS 🏆🐊#MarchMadness @GatorsMBK pic.twitter.com/XatLv5x2hm
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 8, 2025
“Our motto is, we all can go,” said Clayton, whose 713 points this year broke the program’s single-season record. “We’ve got a team full of guys that can go. It ain’t just about me. My team held me down until I was able to put the ball in the basket. Shout out to them boys.”
Florida (36–4) claimed their third NCAA men’s basketball title and first since 2007, completing a postseason run fueled by resilience, timely shot-making and relentless defense. The Gators trailed for 38 minutes and 43 seconds overall and hadn’t led since 8–6 until the final minute, when Alijah Martin calmly hit two free throws with 46.5 seconds remaining to give them a 64–63 lead. Then came a series of plays that flipped the script on college basketball’s stingiest defense, the best in the country by any metric.
Houston (35–5), seeking their first championship in the program’s 80-year history, were undone by Florida’s defense down the stretch. After Martin’s free throws, the Gators lured Sharp into a triple-team in the corner. Will Richard knocked the ball off Sharp’s leg and out of bounds. Florida added one more point at the line, then set up for one final stop. They’d get it.
“We did what we did all year,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “We stayed the course. We have the best backcourt in America. I think we have the best frontcourt in America. And like we’ve done all year, we made plays when we needed them the most. We guarded our butts off down the stretch. [We] made every 50-50 winning play.”
The first half wasn’t pretty. In fact, it was downright brutal for stretches. Nothing came easy – not for either side – with each team missing their first seven three-point attempts. Clayton, Florida’s electric combo guard, was held scoreless after back-to-back 30-point outbursts against Texas Tech in the Elite Eight and Auburn on Saturday night, harassed by a rotating crew of Cougar defenders and denied any space. The Gators coughed up nine turnovers (to Houston’s two), their frontcourt got pushed around and their offense sputtered for long stretches. And somehow, they trailed by just three at the intermission.
Houston then opened the second half with an 11–2 run, pushing the lead to 42–30 with just under 16 minutes left. At that point, Houston’s win probability soared past 90%. Florida looked rattled. The building – filled with red – spiked to ear-splitting volumes as the Cougars landed one body blow after another.
But the Gators punched back. Clayton finally got going with a pair of three-point plays that helped Florida claw within striking distance. He hit his only three-pointer with 6:42 left, part of a second-half surge that included seven assists and multiple feeds to Thomas Haugh and Alex Condon for easy baskets. By then Houston’s offense was in a tailspin and the Gators were gaining confidence.
Condon and Haugh combined for 18 points and 13 rebounds. Martin chipped in nine and made all four of his free throws. Florida’s depth and composure made the difference.
The Cougars were led by LJ Cryer’s game-high 19 points and Sharp’s nine off the bench, but they missed their last four field goals and were held scoreless over the final 1:29. Jamal Shead’s pull-up jumper clanged off the front rim with 16 seconds to go and Sharp’s botched final look sealed their fate. After committing four turnovers in the first 36:35, they gave it away five times in the final 3:24 including each of their final four possessions.
Instead of becoming the oldest head coach to win a national title at 69, the Cougars’ Kelvin Sampson watched Golden – just 39 – become the youngest since North Carolina State’s Jim Valvano, whose own shock victory came at Houston’s expense in 1983.
Florida become the 10th different school with at least three national titles, joining UCLA (11), Kentucky (eight), North Carolina (six), Connecticut (six), Duke (five), Indiana (five), Kansas (four), Louisville and Villanova (three apiece).
For the Gators, it capped a wild ride: a second-round win over two-time defending champions UConn, a tough Elite Eight win over Texas Tech and an overtime classic in the Final Four against Southeastern Conference rivals Auburn. Each time, the Gators made it through. Same for Monday’s finale – a heart-stopper that featured 12 ties, staunch defense and three lead changes in the final 90 seconds – they completed one final comeback.
And while Richard’s hot start and Martin’s clutch free throws were critical, the game came down to Clayton: the guy who couldn’t buy a bucket early, then made the game’s defining play without one. And a short drive down Interstate 10 from Houston, it was the Gators and not the Cougars who cut down the nets.
