The National Championship matchup between Florida and Houston took place on Monday in San Antonio, Texas. If you didn’t get to watch the game live, here’s a recap of everything that happened.
In the first couple minutes of the game you could tell both teams had some nerves because combined the teams were 0/13 from three. This changed when Will Richard hit back to back three’s for Florida. Despite a low scoring first half from both teams Houston seemed to have the upper hand. This is because they were able to hold Walter Clayton Jr. to zero points. This was super impressive because Clayton Jr. was coming off back to back thirty point games. Luckily for Florida Richard was able to keep them in this game. Richard ended the second half with 14 of Florida’s 28 points.
Going into the second half down by three Florida needed to pick up their offense. But unfortunately they couldn’t do this. Early onto the second half Houston was able to frustrate Florida and force a technical foul on the Florida bench. This allowed Houston to take a 12 point lead, the biggest of the game. Although in the next few minutes of the game Florida was able to erase this lead. Through a three by Alijah Martin, a block and transition and-one from Thomas Haugh, and most importantly, back to back and-ones from Clayton Jr. These were the first points of the game for him coming with only eight minutes left. In the next few minutes Houston started to gain some momentum back with a big put back dunk from Ja’Vier Francis. But Florida would respond with a three from Clayton Jr. With just a minute left in the game Houston led by one and had possession. LJ Cryer drove inside but was smothered and blocked by Thomas Haugh. This allowed Florida to run the fast break and force a foul. Alijah Martin would make both of his free throws giving Florida their second lead of the game. With 30 seconds left Houston had an opportunity to take the lead but Will Richard would make a great defensive play. Richard knocked the ball out of Emmanuel Sharp’s hand into his knee. Houston would try and force a turnover on the inbound, like how they did against Duke, but would fail. Florida would then make one of their two free throws. Down by two Houston drew up a play for Emmanuel Sharp. Sharp is the type of player to shoot it if he’s even remarkley open. Unfortunately this factor would cost Houston the game. Sharp would come off a screen getting a deep three that appeared to be open. But when he left the ground Clayton Jr. came flying in above him and Sharp couldn’t even put up a shot. The ball bounced on the ground right in front of Sharp and since it’d be a violation if he picked it up he just had to watch the clock run out. Resulting in a 65-63 win for Florida. According to Houston’s coach, Kelvin Sampson, the final play was designed for Sharp to attack the rim. In the postgame conference he says, “We thought if we could get Emmanuel to shot fake and get down hill— He probably should’ve shot faked that.”
