Houston falls short of first title after loss to Florida

After leading for all but 17 seconds of the first 39 minutes of the contest, Houston trailed Florida by one with 46.5 seconds left and had the ball.

Emanuel Sharp drove the lane and lost the ball out of bounds on the baseline amid pressure from the Gators. Florida nearly turned it over on a long pass but retained possession, which led to Denzel Aberdeen sinking one of two free throws to double the lead to two with 19 ticks left on the clock.

So Houston had one final shot to either tie it and force overtime or hit a three and win its first national championship, but it did not get up a shot. Sharp elevated for a 3-pointer with five seconds left, but amid a contest from Walter Clayton Jr., he hesitated, leaving the ball in mid-air beyond the arc. To avoid a travel, he left the ball untouched, and a diving Alex Condon corralled it to seal the Gators’ win.

“[He] probably should have shot faked that,” Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson said. “Both of those guys, [Will] Richard and [Alijah] Martin, both really good defensively. Clayton made a great play on that [close out].”

Final score: Florida 65, Houston 63.

“It hurts because I can’t do it next year,” J’Wan Roberts said. “From Coach Sampson down to [his] grandkids, everybody played a part in me being here for six years. I wanted it so bad for him…so, so, so bad, and it hurts that I can’t do it next year. This will be my last time wearing my jersey, and I feel terrible. I told the younger guys, the returners, to remember this feeling, so when you’re in this moment again, in this situation again, you’ll be on top.”

The Cougars held Florida to their second-lowest point total in a game — their lowest in a win — all season. The Gators made just six threes in the game, and Clayton Jr. scored zero first-half points. The former Iona guard finished with 11 on his way to Most Outstanding Player honors but didn’t hit a field goal until there was less than eight minutes left.

“I told our guys after the game to be disappointed you lost but do not be disappointed in your effort,” Sampson said. “Defending Florida is difficult. They’ve got a really, really good team. Coach Golden runs great schemes over there. We guarded them. We held that team to 65 points. We thought if we held Duke to under 70, we’d have a good chance to win, [so] I felt like if we held Florida under 70, we’d have a good chance to win.”

The Cougars fall to 0-3 all-time in national championship games, with this one slipping just beyond their grasp. They led by as many as 12 early in the second half.

LJ Cryer led the team with 19 points.