Clayton leads Florida to the match for the title NCAA, marking 34 points in 79-73 victory over Auburn

By Stephen Hawkins

San Antonio (AP)-Walter Clayton Jr. scored 34 points and Florida beat the rival of the Southeast Conference Auburn 79-73 in the Final Four on Saturday evening, sending the Gators to the National Championship match for the first time since their titles in 2006 and 2007.

Goalkeeper All-America for the Gators (35-4) had a driving lay-up with 2:24 to play, in possession just after the great Australian man Alex Condon made an accusation against Johni Broome, the other player of the All-America in this national semi-final-and who was dealing with a right-winged elbow.

After a 14 -sec team record made this NCAA tournament, seven arrived at Sweet 16 before the League composed half of the elite eight, then this Final Four filled with standard heads 1.

The Gators will have the chance on Monday evening to win the first title of the dry since Kentucky in 2012, the only one since they won consecutive seasons. Florida takes a sequence of 11 consecutive victories in the title champion match in Alamodom against Duke or Houston.

“We are just together on the field and off the field,” said Clayton.

Even at the end of the first dry confrontation in a Final Four, Clayton continued a loose rebound and strengthened it so that the stopwatch came out of the victory. When he started going back to the field, his teammate Alijah Martin looked at him at the end line nodding his head with a smile to greet him.

The Tigers (32-6), in their second Final Four with coach Bruce Pearl, were the global seeded and had an eight-point lead at halftime.

“Auburn had us on our heels in the first half, but we went out with an excellent start and we did not look back,” said Florida coach, 39, Todd Golden, the former Saint Mary player and San Francisco coach who joined Pearl’s first staff in Auburn in 2014.

Clayton became the first player with consecutive matches of 30 points in the Elite Eight and semi-finals from Larry Bird for the state of Indiana in 1979, according to ESPN statistics. Clayton has obtained more than 30 years with his three-point game with 1:33 to play, marking on a lay-up while being dirty and adding the franc launch.

Martin, who played in the Final Four with Fau two years ago, added 17 points for the Gators. Thomas Haugh had 12.

The Florida opened the second half with a 13-3 race, Clayton capping a 11-0 race with a lay-up after the flight of Rueben Chinyelu. This put the Gators 51-49 with 15 1/2 minutes on the left.

Chad Baker-Mazara, with his partially wrapped left hand because of a thumb problem, led Auburn with 18 points, including four 3 points. Broome finished with 15 points on 6 shots out of 14 and achieved seven rebounds – he had only three points after half time.

Even before the final buzzer resounded, Broome was bent, then was surrounded by cameras to capture his reaction. He finally got up to shake hands, then left the terrain with the red eyes crying – pulling his jersey to wipe his face while the cameras continued to follow his outing.

Broome and Baker-Mazara were both injured in the victory over the state of Michigan last Sunday which sent the Tigers in the Final Four. Broome’s right elbow clumsily leaned up during a hard fall in the second half, and in the last four, it bore a sort of point on his arm covered with a sleeve.

Originally published: April 5, 2025 at 6:40 p.m.