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.”