Clayton leads Florida to NCAA title game

SAN ANTONIO — Walter Clayton Jr. is having an NCAA Tournament for the ages. Florida now just needs him to deliver one more time.

The Gators finally are getting a shot at another national championship after another special performance from their All-America guard.

Clayton scored 34 points with five 3-pointers, giving him the first consecutive 30-point games this deep in the tourney since Larry Bird, and Florida beat Southeastern Conference rival Auburn 79-73 in the Final Four on Saturday night. The Gators are going to the national championship game for the first time since their titles in 2006 and 2007.

“Clayton was the difference. He was just flat out the difference,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “We couldn’t contain him down that end.”

No team has against the leading scorer in this NCAA Tournament. He is the first player with 30-point games both the the Elite Eight and semifinals since Bird for Indiana State in 1979, according to ESPN Stats.

“He’s poised, calm and collected, confident in himself. We have that confidence in him,” Gators guard Will Richard said. “We see him practice, see his work ethic. We’re glad everybody else is getting to see him do it in a game.”

The Gators (35-4) got this far only after Clayton rallied them twice in this tournament. He scored 13 of his 23 points in the final eight minutes in a 77-75 win in the second round that ended UConn’s pursuit of a third national title in a row, then had two late 3s last Sunday when they came from nine points down with less than three minutes left to beat Texas Tech.

“I’m just used to seeing him put the ball in the basket, I guess,” Gators coach Todd Golden said. “But he’s done what he’s done all year for us. In big moments, stepped up, hit huge shots, settled our team down and made winning plays when we needed it the most.”

Clayton had a driving layup with 2:24 left in the national semifinal, on the possession right after Australian big man Alex Condon drew a charge against Johni Broome, the other All-America player in the game — and who was dealing with an injured right elbow.

The first SEC matchup in a Final Four ended with Clayton chasing down a loose rebound and tipping it back inbounds to keep the clock running out on the win. When he started to walk back on the court, teammate Alijah Martin was standing watching him at the end line nodding with a smile to greet him.

“We’re just all together, on the court and off the court,” Clayton said.

After a record 14 SEC teams made this NCAA Tournament, seven got to the Sweet 16 before the league made up half the Elite Eight and then this Final Four filled with No. 1 seeds.

Florida will have the chance Monday night to win the SEC’s first title since Kentucky in 2012, the only one since the Gators won in back-to-back seasons. They take an 11-game winning streak into the title championship game in the Alamodome against either Duke or Houston.

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

The Tigers, in their second Final Four with Pearl, were the top overall seed and had an eight-point halftime lead.

“Auburn had us on our heels in the first half but we came out with a great start and we didn’t look back,” said the 39-year-old Golden, who joined Pearl’s first staff at Auburn in 2014.

Florida opened the second half with a 13-3 run, with Clayton capping that with a layup after Rueben Chinyelu’s steal. That put the Gators up 51-49 with 15 1/2 minutes left.

After eight lead changes and six ties in the first 11:02 of the game, Auburn stretched out to as much as a nine-point lead before halftime, and led until Florida ended its big spurt with 11 consecutive points. There were 15 lead changes and 10 ties.

Chad Baker-Mazara, with his left hand partially wrapped because of a thumb issue, led Auburn with 18 points, including four 3-pointers. Broome finished with 15 points on 6-of-14 shooting and had seven rebounds — he had only three points after halftime in the Tigers’ second loss to Florida this season.

Broome was hunched over even before the final buzzer, and then was surrounded by cameras to capture his reaction. He eventually stood up to shake hands, then walked off the court with his eyes red from crying — pulling up his jersey to wipe his face as cameras continued to follow his exit.

Baker-Mazara and Broome both were injured in the win over Michigan State last Sunday that sent the Tigers to the Final Four. Broome’s right elbow bent awkwardly during a hard fall in the second half, and in the Final Four he wore some kind of brace on his arm covered by a sleeve.

“My elbow felt fine going into the game. Obviously here and there it bothered me a little bit. But, I mean, nothing that I couldn’t play with,” Broome said. “I feel like we got the looks that we wanted to get. I wasn’t able to capitalize and finish them.”