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Tre Mann forced up a deep three, an Oral Roberts jersey seemingly on top of him, a desperate plea for more Florida basketball in the 2020-21 season. His prayer found rim, then rim again and the Gators were forced to watch the 15-seed Cinderella story turn them into a pumpkin.

Florida’s season came to an abrupt end Sunday night, as the Gators punted away an 11-point lead in the closing ten minutes to fall to the Golden Eagles, 81-78, and came just one possession short of reaching the second weekend of March Madness.

Both the Gators and the Golden Eagles were some of the best shooting teams in the country entering Sunday night’s game, and offense controlled the game early. In the opening minutes, Mann, Max Abmas, and Noah Locke made back-to-back-to-back threes in less than a minute, setting the tone for much of the first half.

Abmas, the NCAA’s leading scorer with 24.4 points per game coming in, buoyed Oral Robert’s offense early. He scored 16 points in the opening half, attacking the Gators again and again from both inside and outside the arc, on his way to 26 points.

The Gators led most of the opening half, however, behind efforts from Mann and Lewis. The two combined for 21 points, both touching double-digits before they even returned to the locker room with a trio of threes between them. The Gators gave the ball away proficiently, with five turnovers in the opening seven minutes, but their shooting seemed to render the point null.

After a back-and-forth first half including more than 10 lead changes, the Gators scored eight of the final 10 points of the half to return to the locker room with a 37-42 lead, twenty minutes away from Mike White’s second trip to the Sweet 16.

In what may be his final game in a Gator uniform, Mann caught fire to start the second half, putting on a cape and scoring eight points in the opening three minutes in a stretch that included two deep threes. His flurry highlighted a 12-7 run to open up Florida’s first double-digit lead of the night.

Mann didn’t make another basket, a jumper with 17:14 to play serving as the last of his 19 points. He finished 0-5 from the floor.

As Mann fizzled out, Florida continued to keep the Golden Eagles at arms length. Colin Castleton, who finished with 14 points including 10 in the second half, made three big layups and four free throws to keep the lead. The Gators led by 11 with as little as 9:30 to play.

The Golden Eagles, desperate for their foot to fit Cinderella’s slipper, refused to go away. They did what they did best, they shot their way back into the game from the three-point line and the penalty stripe. They made ten threes and went 19/23 from the free throw line. They dominated the turnover margin, 20-12, and committed eight less fouls than the Gators, a carbon copy of their recipe to upsetting Ohio State on Friday.

With 2:54 to play, Kevin Obanor, who led the comeback with a game-high 28 points, netted skyhook made it a 77-76 Golden Eagle lead. In under seven minutes, Florida’s lead completely disappeared, and the Gators’ carriage seemed to be turning back into a pumpkin in front of the country’s eyes.

Florida shot 55% from the field for the game but went ice cold at the absolute worst time. Noah Locke made a jumper to regain the lead, but a DeShang Weaver three gave Oral Roberts the lead for good. In the final 2:30 of the game, the Gators missed all four of their field goal attempts, including a trio of threes.

Oral Roberts entered the postseason ranked 330th in offensive rebounds allowed according to KenPom and Florida out-rebounded them 37-24 on Sunday. But in the final minutes, they pulled down boards like the best team in the country. The Golden Eagles came up with a huge defensive rebound with 17 seconds left, then refused to give the Gators a quick look at another open three to tie the game as the clock expired.

A pro-Oral Roberts arena exploded as the Gators were left to stare up at the scoreboard, in shock they were not the final act of Oral Roberts’ movie, but rather the finale of their own. As the Gators came three points away from the second weekend, they leave Indianapolis knowing redemption may be a long time coming.