Florida will face Houston Monday in the 2024-25 NCAA Men’s Tournament Final in San Antonio, after the Gators pulled off a comeback, 79-73 victory over the Auburn Tigers and the Cougars’ 70-67 win over the Duke Blue Devils in a night of one-seed Final Four matchups at the Alamodome Saturday.
Tip is scheduled for 8:50 p.m. ET on Monday; the game will air on CBS.
Fifteen lead changes and 10 ties encapsulate a Final Four showdown for the ages between Florida and Auburn Saturday night.
The Gators rallied from an eight-point halftime deficit to secure a National Championship berth behind Consensus First-Team All-American Walter Clayton Jr.‘s 20 second-half points and 34 on the night, making him the first player to drop 30+ back-to-back in the Elite Eight and Final Four since Larry Bird at Indiana State in 1979.
A pair of slam dunks by fellow Florida guard Alijah Martin, the latter contested by multiple Auburn defenders, eight rebounds by center Rueben Chinyelu and strong all-around interior defense limiting Tigers All-American forward Johni Broome to three points throughout the second half, combined with Clayton’s scoring output, elevated UF to its first title appearance under third-year head coach Todd Golden.
Florida returns to the Final for the first time since 2014, when class of 2025 Naismith Hall of Fame head coach Billy Donovan led the program.
“I thought Auburn played great in the first half. We did some nice things, but we did not have an answer for their physicality in the paint,” Golden assessed the Gators’ Final Four performance. “They were 13 of 18 from two. The way our game plan, we weren’t executing it very well and it wasn’t working very well … The main message at halftime was we have to get back to doing what we do and executing in a positive way.
“We scored right out of halftime. I think we got a stop, got the ball back, hit a three to make it nine. From that point forward I thought we did a good job ever getting back to ourselves. Our bigs did a great job in the second half defending and rebounding. We ended up plus-11 on the glass, plus-nine. We were down one at halftime. We did a great job of guarding Johni one-on-one in the second half. I think he was one-of-four from the field. We started getting out in transition a little bit, saw the ball go through the basket, started gaining some confidence. We obviously played a really, really good second half.”
Down as many as 14 points with 11:54 left in regulation, Houston, too, managed to rally in the second half and secure a spot in the championship game, going on a 22-8 run over the final 8:02, an 11-1 run over the last 1:14 and 9-0 run in the ultimate 33 seconds of the contest. Duke forward Cooper Flagg‘s three-pointer with 3:03 remaining marked the Blue Devils’ only non-free-throw score during the Cougars’ 22-8 run.
Guard LJ Cryer led Houston with 26 points on the night, including 14 in the second half, with guard Emanuel Sharp adding 12 points over the final 20 minutes and 16 in total.
