Gators Survive With Late Heroics from Clayton Jr., Advance to Sweet 16

Walter Clayton Jr. hit two of his five 3-pointers in the game's last three minutes, sparking the Gators to a 77-75 win over UConn in the Round of 32.

The Florida Gators clinched its first appearance in the Sweet 16 while also preventing the back-to-back champion UConn Huskies from three-peating with a 77-75 win. / Kyle Lander / Gators Illustrated

RALEIGH, NC-- With their backs against the wall and trailing by six in the second half, the No. 1 Florida Gators on Sunday found a way to survive and advance in its quest for a national championship with a 77-75 win over No. 8 UConn.

The win also prevented the back-to-back champions from three-peating in the NCAA Tournament.

"I think this just historic run that these guys have been on and the guys that have worn the uniform the past couple years, if it's going to come to an end for us, I wouldn't have wanted it to be in a game where we lost to a lower seed," UConn head coach Dan Hurley said. "There's some honor, I guess, in the way that this went down."

Florida trailed for nearly 17 minutes in the second half before Walter Clayton Jr. drilled a 3-pointer to give the Gators a 62-61 lead. From there, he would score five of Florida's final 15 points, including another 3-pointer with 1:06 left to extend the lead to six, clinching the program's first appearance in the Sweet 16 in eight years.

"This is a great win for our program," head coach Todd Golden said. "The time was now for us to take that next step. Again, Florida basketball back where it belongs. Being in the Sweet 16 is a great step in the right direction."

The senior All-American guard finished with 23 points and five 3-pointers, marking his fourth-straight game with at least 20 points, while Alijah Martin and Will Richard added 18 points and 15 points, respectively.

"We knew this game wasn't going to be easy," Clayton Jr. said. "They've got a championship pedigree, back-to-back champions. That's a great team. They had that experience. We knew it wasn't going to be easy. We kept our composure."

Two HUGE plays and the Gators have the lead 👀 pic.twitter.com/OEexTK0xV9

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 23, 2025

And it all happened despite Florida giving up 14 offensive rebounds, shooting 64.7 percent from the free-throw line compared to the Huskies' 86.4 percent mark and having 12 turnovers, nine of which came in the first half.

The Gators had every opportunity to build a lead in the first half as UConn shot 11-for-34 from the field and 4-for-18 from beyond the arc, but nine first-half turnovers, three of which came from Richard, completely stifled Florida's offense as the team's were tied 31-31 at the break.

Martin had 14 of Florida's points at halftime on 6-of-9 shooting, which included a 3-pointer with 7:13 left in the half to retake the lead, 19-18.

"I think he showed experience," Clayton Jr. said. "Obviously he has been here before. Man, that's just Alijah. We see Alijah every day. We done seen him in multiple games this year, even at home, in the Georgia game when he came out. He's had multiple moments like that all year, and he just did that again today."

Alijah Martin scored 14 of his 18 points in the first half of the Florida Gators' 77-75 win over UConn to advance to the Round of 32. / Kyle Lander / Gators Illustrated

UConn shot out of the gate in the second half, taking a 38-32 lead behind a pair of buckets from Johnson and an and-one from Hassan Diarra. The Huskies held a six-point lead as late as the 10-minute mark.

Despite trailing and in its toughest fight all season, the Gators continued to chip away. 3-pointers from Clayton Jr. and Will Richard cut the deficit to one point with 6:45 left in the game as UConn mostly relied on free throws the rest of the way.

"Credit Clayton," Hurley said. "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 here."

The Huskies did not record a field goal for nearly five minutes after a 3-pointer from Alex Karaban, but free throws from Karaban, Liam McNeeley and Johnson kept them slightly ahead.

For every pair of free throws UConn recorded, the Gators had an answer as Alex Condon and Clayton Jr. each recorded a field goal before Condon made a free throw to make it a two-point game with 3:28 left.

Less than a minute later, Clayton Jr. hit arguably the biggest shot of Florida's season with his lead-taking 3-pointer, and Richard immediately added a fastbreak dunk to put the Gators ahead by three.

"What makes Walter so special, just is his ability to stay even keeled regardless of how he's doing, whether it's great or not so great," Golden said. "His ability to continue to lock in and stay the course. Obviously over the last eight minutes I thought he did a great job of just kind of taking what the defense gave him, stepping up. His confidence level never wavers regardless of what's going on and hitting huge shots that allowed us to capitalize and win the game."

UConn's Solo Ball answered with a 3-pointer of his own to tie the game with 2:12 left, but three free throws from Condon and Clayton Jr., plus another 3-pointer by Clayton Jr. put the Gators ahead by six points with a minute left.

WALTER CLAYTON BUCKET GAWD @GatorsMBK pic.twitter.com/2vHSBsOgLP

— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) March 23, 2025

At that point, UConn consistently fouled Florida in an effort to stay alive, and it nearly worked with Condon missing on a pair of free throws with 43 seconds left. However, Martin found the offensive rebound, and an ensuing dunk all but sealed it for Florida.

A-MART

pic.twitter.com/hspafjUVTy

— Florida Gators Men’s Basketball (@GatorsMBK) March 23, 2025

Next Up

With the win, Florida advances to the Sweet 16 for the first time since the 2017 tournament, where they'll face the winner of No. 4 Maryland and No. 12 Colorado State. Tipoff between the Terrapins and Rams is Sunday at 7:10 p.m.

"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."

Dates and times for all Sweet 16 matchups will be announced after the conclusion of all Round of 32 games.

More From Gators Illustrated

feed