RALEIGH, N.C. – With under four minutes remaining and trailing by three, Florida huddled during a media timeout facing two-time defending champion Connecticut. The Gators had been behind since the opening basket of the second half, struggling with missed defensive assignments and a slew of missed free throws. Time—and opportunities—were slipping away.
Head coach Todd Golden didn’t mince words.
"It's now or never, man," Golden told his players. "If we can't find a way to pull back out in front these next few minutes, we're going home."
The next voice wasn’t clearly identified—possibly Walter Clayton Jr., or seniors Alijah Martin or Will Richard—but the sentiment was unanimous.
"It's winning time," someone said.
And over the next minute-plus, Florida made that declaration a reality.
"We just persevered," said sophomore forward Thomas Haugh. "And we got Walter Clayton Jr. on our team."
Clayton, a first-team All-American, delivered eight of his game-high 23 points in the final two minutes, including two clutch three-pointers that flipped the deficit into an eight-point lead. That surge was enough for top-seeded Florida to seal a 77–75 win in the NCAA West Region’s second round at Lenovo Center, sending the team to its 11th Sweet 16 appearance—and first since 2017.
Florida (32–4), riding an eight-game win streak and victorious in 14 of its last 15, will face 4-seed Maryland (27–8) on Thursday night at Chase Center in San Francisco. Maryland advanced with a buzzer-beating 72–71 win over 12-seed Colorado State in Seattle.
Alijah Martin, a fifth-year transfer from Florida Atlantic, contributed 18 points, including four during Florida’s decisive closing stretch. Guard Will Richard added 15 points, six rebounds, two assists, and three steals. The Gators shot 46% overall, improving to 54% in the second half—a necessary boost on a day when they struggled at the free-throw line, converting just 22 of 34 attempts. That included a shaky 15-of-27 performance (55.6%) after halftime. Defensively, Florida held UConn to 37.5% shooting and limited them to 8-of-29 from three-point range (27.6%).
"We made winning play after winning play down the stretch the last six minutes after about 34 minutes of it not looking like it was going to go our way," said head coach Todd Golden, whose team was down 55–51 with under seven minutes left. "That's the benefit of having three great senior leaders in the back court and some young, hungry front court players that will give their all to compete every play. It wasn't pretty for the majority of the game for us … but our players delivered."
Florida responded with a six-point burst to take the lead, only for UConn (24–11) to tie it with a three-pointer. The Gators answered again, this time with a 10–2 run to build an eight-point cushion, then held off a final push of fouls and free throws in the closing seconds.
Walter Clayton Jr., who had just 10 points through the first 30 minutes, came alive late. He finished with 23 points, hitting six of 14 shots—five of them from beyond the arc—and going 6-for-7 at the line. Despite five turnovers, Clayton delivered when it counted most.
"Credit Clayton," said UConn head coach Dan Hurley. "He made some NBA level 3s off the dribble to beat us. It took that for somebody to put us down in this tournament after winning, obviously, a bunch in a row."
That streak spanned 13 games, dating back to the 2023 NCAA Tournament, which began with a win over Iona—where Clayton was the starting point guard. A full-circle moment, indeed.
"We stayed the course," Clayton said, acknowledging the pressure that comes with being a No. 1 seed. He noted how UConn’s dynamic offense and relentless rebounding kept Florida on edge. "You may not have been able to tell from the outside, but we came back to the huddle a couple times and told each other, 'We have to get a stop! We have to be better at this and better at that!' There were moments we were getting on each other, but in a good way."
Thomas Haugh (10), Alex Condon (center) and the Gators got quite a challenge on the glass from the battle-tested Huskies.
For nearly 38 minutes, neither team managed to pull ahead by more than six points. UConn guard Hassan Diarra capped the first half with a dramatic 30-foot three-pointer to tie the score at 31. Despite shooting just 32% from the field and 22% from beyond the arc (4-for-18), the Huskies were level with the fourth-ranked Gators heading into the break.
At that point, Walter Clayton Jr. had tallied eight points, but his stat line included as many turnovers as made field goals—just two.
"Obviously, they were bothering him with some pressure … making him make some uncharacteristic mistakes, some turnovers that we haven't seen for the majority of the year, not as strong with the ball as he usually plays with," said Florida head coach Todd Golden. "But what makes Walter so special is his ability to stay even keeled regardless of how he's doing, whether it's great or not so great. His ability to continue to lock in and stay the course."
Florida coach Todd Golden coaches up his star point guard.
It wasn’t until deep into the second half that Walter Clayton Jr. began to shift the game’s momentum. UConn center Samson Johnson opened the half with consecutive baskets, and after Florida forward Alex Condon split a pair of free throws, Huskies freshman Liam McNeeley—who led his team with 22 points—converted a traditional three-point play to give UConn a six-point edge with 18 minutes remaining.
For the next 15 minutes, Florida found itself playing catch-up. Much like the first half, UConn controlled the tempo, slowing the game down and disrupting Florida’s preferred pace with deliberate possessions, backdoor cuts, and late-shot-clock fouls.
"I don't know that we could have managed the game better than we did," said UConn head coach Dan Hurley. "We dragged them into the type of game that we wanted to drag them into. We kind of dragged them into a Big East [Conference], low-possession game. It did not resemble a [Southeastern Conference] game."
For much of the contest, Florida didn’t resemble the team that had just finished second in the SEC and dominated its way to a conference tournament title.
Then everything changed.
"We flipped the script in winning time," said Florida head coach Todd Golden.
UConn held a six-point lead on four separate occasions in the second half, the last coming with under nine minutes to play. A pair of free throws from Rueben Chinyelu and a three-pointer by Clayton cut the deficit to one. Florida followed with a defensive stop and had a chance to take the lead on the break, but Alijah Martin’s fast-break dunk attempt—possibly launched a bit early—clanged off the back iron. UConn capitalized with a three-pointer from guard Solo Ball, pushing the lead to 55–51.
Will Richard responded with a three of his own just before the seven-minute mark. From there, the teams traded baskets, with UConn maintaining slim leads of either one or three points until Florida regrouped in a timeout, trailing 61–58 with 3:41 left.
That’s when the Gators locked in.
"We just got back to what we do," Richard said. "We have trust in each other. The three senior guards, we have a lot of experience, and we did a great job trying to keep everybody calm throughout those moments."
Senior guard Will Richard (5) fires up his bench (not that it needed it) after his steal and slam as the Gators took control of the game.
Alex Condon hit one of two free throws to trim the deficit to two. On the next possession, UConn’s Alex Karaban—who brought 109 career starts and two national championships into the game—missed a driving layup. Walter Clayton Jr. responded with the first of his two late-game three-pointers, giving Florida its first lead since the opening half, 62–61, with 2:50 remaining.
"His confidence level never wavers regardless of what's going on," said head coach Todd Golden about Clayton.
Moments later, Liam McNeeley was stripped by Will Richard, and Condon quickly launched the ball ahead to a sprinting Richard, who finished with a dunk to extend the lead to 64–61, igniting the Florida bench and fans behind it.
UConn’s Solo Ball answered immediately with his second three-pointer to tie the game at 64. On Florida’s next trip down, Condon again went to the line, making the first but missing the second. Alijah Martin tipped the rebound, Thomas Haugh secured it, and quickly dished to Clayton, who drove into the paint, drew contact, and sank both free throws to push the Gators back in front by three.
"That's just us wanting to win," Richard said. "To win games like that, you've got to make big plays and we had multiple guys step up. Everybody that was on the court impacted the game."
After Karaban missed a potential game-tying three, Clayton came off a dribble handoff from Condon, sized up the defense, and buried a tough fall-away three-pointer to stretch the lead to six with just over a minute left.
"Most people aren't made for that," said Martin. "Walt definitely is."
Walter Clayton Jr. (1) rises up for second late-game 3-pointer that pushed the Gators in front by six.
The next pivotal moment belonged to Alijah Martin—again. After Liam McNeeley’s basket trimmed Florida’s lead to six, Alex Condon missed both free throws with 43.4 seconds left. On the second miss, the Gators crashed the boards, and Martin came up with the rebound. Spotting an open lane, he powered in a two-handed dunk that marked Florida’s sixth consecutive made field goal and extended the lead to eight. Another clutch play from a player who kept delivering.
McNeeley answered with a driving layup at the 28-second mark, but Martin responded with two free throws at 21.6. UConn kept applying pressure, drawing fouls and converting at the line with the clock stopped. After McNeeley sank two more free throws with 6.6 seconds remaining, the Huskies were within three, 75–72.
Thomas Haugh was fouled on the inbound, walked the length of the court, and calmly knocked down both free throws with 5.9 seconds left, restoring a five-point cushion. McNeeley’s final three-pointer at the buzzer didn’t change the outcome. Florida had finally defeated UConn for the first time since the 1994 NCAA Tournament—ending a five-game losing streak that included a painful Final Four loss that year.
The Gators now head west to San Francisco—home of the University of San Francisco, where head coach Todd Golden began his rise. Two more wins would send Florida to its next Final Four.
"We all know the reality, if you're going to make a deep run in March, you've got to catch some breaks, and you've got to win some games like this to be able to push through and stay alive," Golden said. "Theoretically, beating a team like UConn, that's used to winning this time of year, in the fashion that we did, should be really good for us moving forward."
For more from senior writer Chris Harry, reach him at chrish@gators.ufl.edu.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION: #GoGators
