Kelvin Sampson told his team that they don’t win easy. His Cougar squad had led by as many as 12 in the second half, but the Florida Gators team, an offensive powerhouse held down by UH through more than a full half of basketball, was coming back.
In the end, they didn’t win easy because they didn’t win at all.
After some brilliant, tough, resilient play over 38 minutes, the Gators finally re-took the lead while the Cougars uncharacteristically fumbled and fouled their way to their first loss since November. It was heartbreaking considering it was the first time the UH Men’s team had been in the final game since 1984. They lost that year as well, to Georgetown, and the year prior at the buzzer to NC State.
The first half found both teams struggling to make shots and the classic frenetic UH defense on display. The Gators best player, Walter Clayton, Jr., was stymied and held to no points despite scoring 34 against Auburn just two days prior. But, the Cougars had their own issues on offense with both L.J. Cryer and Emanuel Sharp held in check. At one point, the teams combined to miss their first 10 three pointers.
But, in the second half, the Coogs came alive behind continued tough defense and the return of Cryer and Sharp’s shooting touch. They quickly built a 12-point lead, a place they were unaccustomed to having played in so many tough, close games. The Gators, on the other hand, had to come back to win their last three games in the tournament and Clayton began to find his game hitting three’s and and-one’s to pull his team back even in the final moments of the game.
Strangely, it would be some rare miscues on offense. The Cougars turned the ball over just four times through nearly three-quarters of the game, but coughed up the ball four times in the final few minutes including the final two possessions, one each from Cryer and Sharp.
Additionally, the officials, who had remained largely hands off in the first half, were quick to the whistle against both teams. Florida, a team that had just one technical all season, picked up two of them in the game. And Houston had three players in foul trouble including JoJo Tugler, who fouled out.
It was a crushing end for a program that has fought so hard to return to prominence only to miss out on multiple opportunities due to injury the last few seasons and, when they finally got to the title game, to squander a double-digit second half lead. It was, in many ways, a reversal of the nail-biting win over Duke on Saturday with Florida playing the spoiler.
The Cougars should be among the favorites to return to the Final Four in 2026, but it was a tough way to end the best year in program history.
