AUBURN, Ala. — The game was tied about seven minutes in Tuesday night when Florida freshman point guard Andrew Nembhard attacked the right baseline, maneuvered under the basket, came face to face with a defender, then left his feet to throw a pass back out toward a teammate on the perimeter.
The ball was intercepted by an Auburn defender, the Tigers sprinted up-court in transition, and inside five seconds guard Bryce Brown buried a 3-point shot to ignite the home crowd at Auburn Arena.
"The No. 1 team in the country at turning you over," UF coach Mike White said about two hours later. "We talked about it until we were blue in the face."
Jump-passes. Shots taken off one foot. Poor box outs. These are fundamental unsound plays that are daily points of emphasis in the UF basketball facility, yet they surfaced far too many times in the Tigers' 76-62 win, an outcome that was aided greatly by a season-worst 17 Florida turnovers that led to 19 Auburn points.
Senior guard Bryce Brown scored 14 points and had three steals, junior guard Samir Doughty added 11 points, and forward Chuma Okeke had 11 points, eight rebounds and three more steals, as Auburn (16-5, 5-4) won a third straight conference game. The Tigers shot 48 percent for the game, made nine 3-pointers and doubled Florida (12-10, 4-5) in second-chance points at 15-7, thanks to 10 offensive rebounds.
The loss was UF's second straight in league play and third over the previous four games. It also snapped an 11-game winning streak for the Gators in the series, dating to the 2009 SEC Tournament in Tampa, and also was Auburn's first home win against Florida in 20 years.
"We weren't very poised taking care of the ball," said UF senior center Kevarrius Hayes, who had a team-high 11 points and four rebounds. "We knew that part of their game plan is to play fast and try to turn us over. That gives them a chance to get out in transition — and they're a very good team in transition."
Frighteningly good. That's why ball security — especially live-ball turnovers — is so important against a team as aggressive and fast as Auburn. The Tigers claw and paw at the ball and if they get it, they're gone and looking first for a 3-point shot first. The Florida coaches would have rather seen their players chuck the ball into the stands, thus allow the defense to retreat and set up, as opposed to seeing electrifying point guard Jared Harper (8 points, 3 assists) and his fellow Tigers in the wide open floor and on the run.
Freshman point guard Andrew Nembhard and his UF teammates had a tough night probing the aggressive Auburn defense.
UF senior guard and leading scorer KeVaughn Allen had 10 points, but six turnovers. Freshman forward Keyontae Johnson had seven points, 10 rebounds and five turnovers. Nembhard had his first negative assist/turnover game of the season (2 assists/3 turnovers).
"Auburn has elite team speed, active hands, and we helped them with a few possessions, playing a little bit hurried and losing poise," White said. "The crowd had something to do with it. Auburn had more to do with it."
After the Nembhard jump-pass-turned-run-out-3, the Tigers never trailed. They opened a 10-point first-half lead that the Gators managed to cut to six at the break, then to four by scoring the first two points of the second half on a couple free throws by Johnson.
But then came a rapid-fire 14-2 hailstorm by Auburn over the next four minutes that included a a pair of UF turnovers and three straight transition baskets, the last an alley-oop slam by Brown on a pass from Harper. That one put the Tigers up 15, having hit five of their first six shots out of intermission.
"To turn them over 17 times, which [equaled] the most they've turned it over all year long, to hold them to four three pointers when they average 10 … ," said a pleased Tigers coach Bruce Pearl. "It's been since 1999 since Auburn has beaten Florida at home, so it's a great win and a great program win. When we're out there recruiting, Florida is one of those programs that is in the next tier, because they've been so good."
The Tigers' lead swelled to as large as 18 with just over eight minutes to go, despite the fact the Gators were shooting better than 50 percent at the time. No matter. Auburn was at 65 percent through the first 12 minutes of the second half.
With that kind of hot hand, the Tigers didn't need any help, be it with turnovers or offensive rebounds; like the one in each half they got off their own missed free throws; sort of like the huge one the Gators surrendered in the second half of the Kentucky loss Saturday that was talked about in triplicate the last few days.
"We knew those things were going to be big factors … all that stuff adds up," UF freshman guard Noah Locke said after scoring 10 points, all in the first half, on a night the Gators shot a good-enough-to-win 46 percent overall, despite going just 4-for-20 from the 3-point line. "Shooting that kind of percentage doesn't really mean anything when you're giving the ball away that many times."
In Auburn's case, it played right into the Tigers' hands and their fast-moving feet.
"Good teams execute important things," White said. "This current Gator team does not do that."
