Editor’s note: this story has been updated to include more information and stats.

The Florida men’s basketball team did it again.

The Gators (36-4) rallied from a 12-point second-half deficit to beat Houston, 65-63, to win their third national title in program history (2006 & 2007) on Monday night at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

The Gators outscored the Cougars, 37-32, in the second half. After falling behind 42-30 with 16:24 to play, Florida outscored Houston 35-21 over the rest of the game.

They held the Cougars (35-5) scoreless over the final two plus minutes.

It was their first national title since 2007 and their third since 2006, which is tied for the second most titles by any program in that span. They became the 10th program to win at least three titles.

They also became the first SEC team since Kentucky in 2012 to win the title.

“It’s a heck of an accomplishment,” said Florida coach Todd Golden, who became the youngest head coach at 39 years old to win a national championship since NC State’s 37-year-old Jim Valvano in 1983. “I’m super proud of everybody in my program top to bottom…our players, they’ve been the difference all the way along. They’ve been incredibly consistent all year, have worked with a great work ethic, and obviously we have an incredibly talented group, one of the most talented groups individually in America, but I do think what separates us and what separated us all season long is our team talent and the way our guys have played together and for each other all year and because of that we can call ourselves national champions for the rest of our lives.”

Senior guard Alijah Martin (7 points) made two free throws with 46 seconds to play to give the Gators a 64-63 lead which proved to be the difference as Florida snapped Houston’s 18-game win streak.

It tied for the third-largest comeback to win a national title and they overcame the largest deficit since Kentucky rallied from 12 points down to beat Utah to win the 1998 national title.

It was the largest comeback in a title game since Kansas rallied from a 16-point deficit to beat North Carolina in 2022.

Florida, which rallied from nine down to beat Auburn in the semifinals, is the only national champion over the last 20 seasons to overcome 9+ point deficits in their final three NCAA Tournament games.

Junior guard Denzel Aberdeen (7 points) made 1-of-2 free throws with 19 seconds to play for the final margin of victory.

Despite only trailing by three, 31-28, at the end of the first 20 minutes, Florida beat themselves in the opening half.

Before the game, head coach Todd Golden said if the Gators committed more than 12 turnovers they would lose.

Florida had nine in the first half, but only turned it over four times in the second half.

Although both teams shot just 37% from the floor in the opening half, the Cougars had eight more attempts.

All-America guard Walter Clayton, Jr. was 0-for-4 from the floor with two turnovers, but he had five assists.

Senior guard Will Richard picked up the slack by knocking down 5-of-8 shots, including 4-for-6 from 3-point range, to keep the Gators in the game.

He had 14 points at intermission after combining for just 13 points total in the previous two NCAA tournament games against Auburn (7 points) and Texas Tech (6). He finished with a team-high 18 points and eight rebounds.

“I was just trying to make plays to help us stay in the game, help us give us the best chance to win,” said Richard, who earned Final Four All-Tournament Team honors. “They were obviously guarding Walt and the other guys pretty hard, but I feel like we did a great job of making simple reads and Walt had seven assists so even when they were guarding him so hard I feel like he still made plays to help the team win. It was just a good job by the team staying aggressive throughout that.”

Clayton, who was named the tournament MVP, scored all 11 of his points in the second half. He didn’t score his first points until he hit two free throws with 14:57 remaining in the game.

“Houston was guarding us great,” Clayton said. “They throw a great defense out there, obviously everyone knows them for that. We’ve got multiple guys on this team that can go and tonight was one of those nights for Will. He’s done shown multiple times this year, and you never know who’s night it’s going to be, and we showed that as a team.”

Clayton, who was just 1-of-7 from behind the arc, didn’t make his first field goal, an and-one, until there was 7:54 remaining in the game. He finished 4-for-4 from the free throw line and added a team-high seven assists.

The senior averaged a Florida-record 23.9 points in his seven NCAA Tournament games as a Gator. His 167 total points rank third all-time in Florida NCAA Tournament history in just seven games. Every other Gator in the top 10 played at least 13 tournament games.

Clayton (713 points), Martin (546) and Richard (531) are the highest-scoring trio in a season in Florida history.

Sophomore forward Alex Condon (12 points) was the other Gator in double figures, adding seven rebounds and four steals.

Senior guard L.J. Cryer led Houston with 19 points.