SAN ANTONIO — The horn sounded. Houston couldn’t get a shot off. Florida celebrated as confetti fell from the roof.
The Gators, an offensive juggernaut all season, won their first national championship in 18 years with defense — against the school known for stifling the opposition.
Florida locked down Houston late and prevailed 65-63 at a rocking Alamodome on Monday night, erasing a 12-point second-half deficit to equal the third-largest comeback in national championship game history.
Walter Clayton Jr. struggled for most of the evening, but still scored 11 big points in the second half and Alijah Martin’s two free throws with 46.5 seconds to go gave the Gators the lead for good.
Houston didn’t score over the final 2:05 and committed four turnovers in that span.
The final one was the crusher.
Emanuel Sharp, who hit the key 3-pointer in the dramatic win over Duke on Saturday night, couldn’t get his shot off. Rather than travel, he attempted to dribble.
But the first player to jump on the ball was Florida’s Alex Condon.
Time ran out on the Cougars, who are still looking for their first national championship.
Will Richard scored 18 points for Florida and Condon added 12 points and seven rebounds.
LJ Cryer scored 19 points to lead Houston, which was held to 31.3 percent shooting after halftime.
After a 4:12 scoreless stretch, Houston finally got going again on the offensive end, starting with a questionable foul on Florida forward Rueben Chinyelu.
He slammed the ball to the court, drawing a technical foul.
It turned into a three-point possession for the Cougars, who scored on five of their next six possessions to carry a three-point lead into the final media timeout.
Out of the break, Clayton hit his first 3-pointer of the evening on his sixth attempt.
The national championship was tied for the 10th time.
Florida finally went ahead with 46.5 seconds to go on two Martin free throws, its first lead since the opening minutes.
The first shot of the game was a Clayton 3-pointer that came up short, a foreboding sign for the senior.
He went scoreless in the first half as Florida was outplayed over the first 20 minutes.
The officials let them play, calling just four fouls in the opening half, an advantage to physical Houston, which blocked five shots in the opening stanza.
The Cougars received surprising offensive contributions from reserves Mylik Wilson (seven) and Ja’Vier Francis (six).
Struggling against Houston’s pressure, the Gators committed nine turnovers and never really were settled offensively.
They were only down three at the break, most because of Richard’s 14 points and four 3-pointers, and Houston’s struggles from deep (2-of-14).
But the Cougars came out of the gates on fire after intermission, ripping off an 11-2 spurt to push the lead to 12. Cryer had seven of those points, while Clayton remained scoreless.
He finally got on the board with two free throws 5:03 into the second half. On the following possession, however, he missed a midrange jumper and was taken out.
The Houston lead was back up to 11.
With Clayton on the bench, Florida finally found some semblance of a rhythm. A quick 8-0 run, capped by an acrobatic Haugh 3-point play, trimmed the deficit to three.
A few minutes later, Clayton finished off a lefty drive for his first field goal of the night 32:06 after the opening tip.
After a timeout, he sank the free throw.
Florida was now even at 48 and 7:54 remained in the college basketball season.
