1 week Ago By Sportsnet Staff
The Florida Gators are officially back on top of the college basketball mountain. In a battle between No. 1 seeds for all the marbles, it was the Gators that came out on top, beating the Houston Cougars 65-63 on Monday to capture the program's third national championship Florida's senior guard Will Richard led the charge as he finished with 18 points while shooting four-of-seven from beyond the arc.
He accounted for half of the Gators' 28 first-half points by himself. NBA draft prospect, senior star Walter Clayton Jr. struggled early as he went scoreless in the first half but made his impact felt throughout the final 20 minutes as he tallied 11 points, five rebounds and seven assists as his Gators climbed out of a 12-point deficit.
Houston's top scorer was senior guard L.J. Cryer, who finished with 19 points on six-of-18 shooting from the field and four-of-11 from distance.
He was the Cougar's lone double-digit scorer for the game. The victory made history in a couple ways for Florida head coach Todd Golden who, at 39 years old, became the youngest head coach to win a men's March Madness title since 37-year-old Jim Valvano in 1983. It's Florida's first title since winning back-to-back championships in 2006-07 when now-Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan — along with NBA vets Al Horford and Joakim Noah — led the way.
More to come..
