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One Stat Summed Up Just How Wild Florida's National Title Game Win Was

Ryan Phillips

Florida won its third national championship with a 65-63 win over Houston in 2025.
Florida won its third national championship with a 65-63 win over Houston in 2025. / Bob Donnan-Imagn Images
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The Florida Gators mounted an improbable comeback to beat Houston 65-63 in Monday night's national championship game. One stat sums up just how crazy the win was for the Gators.

Houston led for most of the night and mostly controlled the game. How extreme was the Cougars' advantage? Florida only led the game for one minute and three seconds. What's even crazier? Most of that was the final 46 seconds of the contest.

A dunk by Florida' Rueben Chinyelu tied the game 6-6 with 16:24 remaining in the first half, then Micah Handlogten made a layup to give the Gators an 8-6 lead with 15:37 to go before the break. They held that lead for 17 seconds until Houston's Emanuel Sharp hit a jump shot to tie things back up 8-8.

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Florida didn't lead again until Alijah Martin hit two free throws to put the Gators up 64-63 with 46 seconds left in the game. They never trailed again.

It doesn't matter how long you lead in a game, as long as you're up when clock hits zero.

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Ryan Phillips
RYAN PHILLIPS

Ryan Phillips is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in digital media since 2009, spending eight years at The Big Lead before joining SI in 2024. Phillips also co-hosts The Assembly Call Podcast about Indiana Hoosiers basketball and previously worked at Bleacher Report. He is a proud San Diego native and a graduate of Indiana University’s journalism program.

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