Florida’s bid to defend its national title ended Sunday night not far from home in Gainesville.

The Gators had the crowd in Tampa, the momentum from a record-setting rout of Prairie View A&M on Friday and every reason to believe the path forward would be theirs.

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What they didn’t count on was Iowa — upright and unyielding as corn stalks — imposing a deliberate, relentless style that gave the Gators fits.

Trailing by two points, Alvaro Folgueiras hit a 3-pointer with 4.5 seconds remaining to give Iowa a 73-72 win over Florida in the second round of Sunday’s South Region in the NCAA Tournament.

Folgueiras, who had been involved in an altercation that resulted in technical fouls for him and UF’s Alex Condon, stared at the partisan Florida crowd.

The Gators’ Xaivian Lee dribbled the length of the court but his pass did not connect with Thomas Haugh as time expired.

Fellow No. 1 seeds Duke and Michigan had already advanced to the Sweet 16 Sunday and Arizona was on the way.

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The Gators entered having averaged 87 points per game in the regular season and SEC Tournament.

But they clearly were not in their comfort zone Sunday, trailing 33-31 at halftime.

Gators coach Todd Golden knew Sunday’s game would be a clash of styles.

Iowa wanted to walk the ball up, drain the shot clock and pound the basketball inside.

The Gators tried to turn every missed shot and turnover into a race to the basket.

But the Hawkeyes shot 48% (12-of-25) in the first half while the Gators struggled at 37% (10-of-27). Iowa also had an 18-14 edge in rebounds.

The whole tenor of the game changed with 8:34 remaining in the first half.

It happened when the Gators’ Condon and Iowa’s Folgueiras scrapped for a loose ball.

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Condon threw Folgueiras to the floor trying to wrestle the ball away. Folgueiras responded with what appeared to be a punch. Both players had to be separated and were each hit with a technical foul.

But the intensity of the game at Benchmark International Arena was amped to a new level.

Complicating matters for the Gators was that center Rueben Chinyelu picked up his third foul and went back to the bench just minutes into the second half. Chinyelu is a double-double machine for the Gators.

Tavion Banks scored 14 in the first half on 5-of-8 shooting from the floor and added four rebounds.

Lee paced the Gators with 10 in the first half, including going 2 of 4 behind the 3-point line.

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Iowa took a 51-39 lead nearly six minutes into the second half when Bennett Stirtz hit a baseline floater and Cooper Koch connected on 3-pointer, forcing Golden to call timeout.

Golden tried to dial up some half-court pressure but it didn’t seem to bother the Hawkeyes.

Florida fought back and consecutive buckets on as many trips down the floor by Isaiah Brown and Haugh gave the Gators their first lead in the second half at 63-61.

Iowa struggled from there, missing the front end of back-to-back 1-and-1 free throws. A layup by Condon made it 69-66 Florida with 2:40 to play.

But Iowa never backed down and made the big plays down the stretch to advance to the Sweet 16.

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This story will be updated.

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