SAN ANTONIO -- With four seconds on the clock, the entire Alamodome stood still. Both Florida and Houston paused.
Cougars guard Emanuel Sharp had gone up to shoot a potential winning 3 with 4.9 seconds left but was forced to adjust when Walter Clayton Jr. came flying out to contest. Sharp dropped the ball with 4.2 seconds left, hoping a teammate would pick it up and bail him out. But nobody moved, not a Houston player nor a Florida player.
Gators forward Alex Condon finally dove on the ball with 2.0 seconds left, securing it and tossing it toward Clayton. The buzzer sounded, Clayton slammed the ball on the ground, and Houston coach Kelvin Sampson looked on in stunned silence.
The Florida Gators were national champions, erasing a 12-point second-half deficit before holding on for a 65-63 win over Houston.
"I was kind of just thinking about what to do, if I should go for it and leave my man," Condon told ESPN. "But once he kind of backed off and tried to guard off Walt, I realized he is not going to pick up the ball. So I dived as hard as I could and got the ball. It was great."
It was a fitting ending for a game that flipped narratives. Monday's title game was billed as a matchup between two of the most dominant units in the sport this season: Florida's offense versus Houston's defense. But it was the Gators' defense that made the difference down the stretch.
Houston had just four turnovers in the first 36:35 of Monday's game but gave it away five times in the final 3:24 -- including three times in the final minute. During one stretch in the second half, Florida got stops on nine straight Houston possessions.
"We've been a top-10 defense all year also. We've been able to stand up against really good offensive teams and find a way to get stops," Florida coach Todd Golden said. "We held them scoreless the last 2:20. Walter, great closeout, and Condo, great hustle play to win the game. That's what made this team special all year, that we can win different ways, and we showed that again tonight."
Since Sampson took over at Houston, the Cougars' identity has been toughness, physicality and bullying teams into submission at the defensive end and on the offensive glass. On Monday, the team imposing its will -- especially in the second half -- was Florida. The Gators had fewer offensive rebounds than Houston but more second-chance points. They forced more turnovers after halftime than the Cougars.
And after Houston was forced to go with a four-guard lineup because of foul trouble, Florida dictated the terms of the game.
"We were starting to wear them down," Florida associate head coach Carlin Hartman told ESPN. "That is very unusual for a Kelvin Sampson-like team because they're the ones that normally do the wearing down and the punking and so forth. But the fact that we have four really good bigs that can play different styles, but also be very physical and be very disruptive, I think it just wore those guys down. And I looked at them, and with about five minutes to go, I was like, they're wearing down. They're tired.
"It's winning time. Let's do what we do."
For the third straight game, Florida had to overcome a significant second-half deficit. In the Elite Eight, Texas Tech led by as many as 10 in the second half and nine with three minutes to go. In the Final Four, Auburn had a nine-point lead early in the second half. And on Monday, Houston led by 12 in the second half -- giving the Cougars a 93.9% chance to win, according to ESPN Analytics -- before the Gators came back. It's tied for the third-largest deficit overcome to win a national championship game.
"You have to have the mental toughness to be able to withstand a little adversity," Golden said. "Our guys knew that it wasn't going to be easy. Didn't panic when it got tough. As Will [Richard] talked about, they did a great job of never getting too high, never getting too low. When we went down 12 in the second half, we stayed the course. We didn't point fingers, didn't start to try to make hero plays, gambling defensively. We got rewarded because of that toughness that we displayed."
"Our back is against the wall," Alijah Martin told ESPN. "But we enjoy it. Every time our backs are against the wall, we respond as champions, as professionals. And it showed up on the biggest stage. And we're national champs."
There is a case to be made that Florida didn't play a complete game in the NCAA tournament after it beat Norfolk State in the first round. And it's a testament to the Gators' resilience that they were able to beat the nation's best defense without getting another incredible performance from All-America guard Clayton.
The leadup to Monday's title game centered almost entirely around Clayton, who was on a run not seen since Kemba Walker and Shabazz Napier carried UConn to a pair of titles in the early 2010s.
It was evident immediately that Houston's scouting report did, too.
After scoring a combined 64 points in his previous two games, Clayton didn't score his first point against the Cougars until the 14:57 mark of the second half. He didn't make his first field goal until there was 7:54 left in the game. Houston made life miserable for Clayton, aggressively hard-hedging on ball screens, not allowing him to get in a rhythm going left, which is where he's at his most effective. But his frustration never showed, his demeanor never changed.
Clayton took what Houston's defense did give him, racking up seven assists before he scored his first point. During a second half that quickly devolved into a game of whistles, an endless parade of players going to the free throw line, the star guard came to life. He had two three-point plays in less than a minute, then hit a huge 3-pointer with 3:14 left to tie the game at 60. He also made multiple defensive plays, getting a steal that led to points when Florida trailed by 10 and then guarding Sharp late in the game, forcing him into the game-sealing turnover.
He finished with 11 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists, winning the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player award.
"He's put together the greatest individual campaign in the history of Florida basketball, and it's a campaign for the record books," said Jonathan Safir, Florida's director of basketball strategy and analytics. "He did it with a ridiculous display of shotmaking, charisma, and the best part of it all is the last possession of the game. He did it with defense. It's really a testament to him, his work ethic, his character, and he deserves to have his jersey retired in the O'Connell Center."
Monday marked Florida's third national championship since 2006 and made the 39-year-old Golden the youngest head coach to win a title since Jim Valvano guided NC State to a championship in 1983.
After the final buzzer and the cutting down of the nets, Golden was one of the first Florida coaches back at the locker room. With a net draped around his neck, he stood outside waiting for everyone else to join him. He high-fived and hugged every player and staff member before they went in the locker room to the sounds of Chief Keef's "Faneto" and 50 Cent's "Many Men."
Golden built a team this season predicated on offense, a group that could push the ball with pace and shoot plenty of 3-pointers. But on Monday, it was everything else that allowed them to win the title.
"I do think what separates us and has separated us all season long is our team talent, how our guys have played together and for each other all year," he said. "Because of that, we can call each other national champions for the rest of our lives."