Final Four: Florida 79, Auburn 73 – Gators to play for the national championship

What happened

San Antonio – Five at the bottom, one to go for Gators.

Florida beat the rival of the Southeast Auburn conference, 79-73, Saturday evening in the Final Four to win its fifth consecutive match in the NCAA tournament. You only need six to win the national championship and the Gators are absent.

The Gators overcome a deficit of 46-38 at halftime at the Alamodom at the counter closed behind a summit of 34 points of the Senior Guard Walter Clayton Jr.which struck 11 of the 18 shots and 5 out of 8 in 3 points to continue its NCAA magic tournament. Clayton scored 20 of his points in the second half.

Guard Alijah Martin Addition of 17 points and second year student Thomas HAUGH Adding 12 points and seven rebounds while the Gators won their consecutive 11th row.

Meanwhile, after following 49-40 at the start of the second half, the Gators used a 11-0 race to take the lead. The Tigers refused to withered, not with the player of the year of the dry Johni Brooma (15 points, seven rebounds) hammering inside and keeps Chad Baker-Mazara (18 points, 4 out of 7 of the distance) Educating shots.

But with the score equally 57 to half in the second half, Martin took a flight and electrified the crowd for a fire on fire. Martin was just beginning. After Aburn resumed his head briefly, Martin’s dunk on two Auburn players put the Gators, 66-63, with 5:27 on the left. Auburn has closed less than twice, but Florida was maintained to reach the national championship match at the head coach Todd GoldenThird season.

What it means

The Gators, during their sixth trip to the history of the program in the Final Four, qualified for the national championship match for the fourth time. Florida has a 2-1 file in the national championship, losing against Michigan State in 2000 before winning consecutive titles in 2006 and 2007.

Under the spotlight

When you are mentioned in the same breath as Larry Bird And the NCAA tournament is generally good. This is the case for Clayton, whose 32 points against Auburn, coupled with his 30 points in the Elite Eight victory against Texas Tech, made him the first player since Bird in 1979 to make 30 points or more in the Elite Eight and Final Four.

Amazing statistics

The 34 points of Clayton are the most in the history of the program in a Final Four match, exceeding 27 of Udonis Haslem During the 2000 national championship match against the state of Michigan. Clayton scored 702 points this season and broke the 55 -year -old score record from Florida, in one season, in mind Andy Owens“676 points scored in 1969-70. We can continue. Another note from Clayton: he set the Florida’s school record for points in a single NCAA tournament, now at 123, exceeding Joakim Noah“S 97 in the 2006 tournament.

The next

Florida (35-4) faces the winner of Houston-Duke on Monday evening for the national championship.