Houston on the wrong side of gritty and ugly finish against Florida in national title game

SAN ANTONIO — This ending was gritty and ugly, just the way Houston usually likes games.

Except it was Florida forcing bad shots and turnovers against Houston to finish off the national championship game Monday night.

The Cougars had four turnovers in the final 1:21 of their 65-63 loss, the last one ending the game.

Emanuel Sharp was unable to get off a 3-pointer with Walter Clayton Jr. running toward him and leaping with his left arm extended. Since the Houston guard was in the air himself, all he could do in hopes of avoiding a turnover was to let the ball fall to the floor.

With Sharp desperately screening Clayton in hopes that one of his teammates would be able to get the loose ball and get off a shot, Alex Condon instead dived to the floor and reached out to get his hands on it as the clock ran out.

Houston trailed only 64 seconds all night, and yet fell short of its first national championship.

For Florida, it was a beautiful ugly. The Gators won their third national championship in their first title game since winning back-to-back in 2006 and 2007.

The Gators hadn’t led since 8-6 until Alijah Martin hit two free throws with 46 seconds left to go up 64-63. That came right after L.J. Cryer was stripped of the ball underneath the Houston basket and Condon came away with it.

Sharp had a turnover when Will Richard had a steal with 26 seconds left that led to another free throw. Houston then called timeout with 19.7 seconds remaining to set up a final play.

Cryer got the ball to Sharp, who had no chance to complete his jumper with Clayton charging toward him.

When the buzzer sounded, Sharp remained crouched on the court near that spot for an extended period. He was consoled by teammate Ja’Vier Francis — and Clayton.

The Cougars had only nine turnovers in the entire game, but four came after Cryer’s putback of his own miss with 2:29 left for a 62-60 lead.