GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The berserk home crowd was ready to the blow the roof off the joint. The Florida Gators, down 18 early in the second half, had just taken the lead on a run-out layup by forward Thomas Haugh that was ruled a goal-tend against Auburn's KeShawn Murphy inside seven minutes to play.
That's when Tigers coach Steven Pearl called for a challenge of the sequence. The officials came to the scorer's table, stared into the video monitor, then emerged to wave the basket off. Clean block. Instead of a two-point UF lead, it was Auburn's ball in a tie game.
The ruling – which was the correct call – completely deflated the atmosphere and the Tigers seized on the lull. They scored the next six points, put the home team on its heels and closed out a 76-67 upset of the 16th-ranked Gators that halted UF's five-game winning streak, as well as a run of 16 consecutive home victories.
Oh, and it was also Auburn's first win at the O'Dome in 30 years, breaking a string of 15 straight defeats.
"Unbelievable win for our ballclub," said Pearl, the first-year head coach, who was promoted to the post when his famous father, Bruce Pearl, retired in September after 11 seasons. "That was probably the best crowd I've seen in this building since we've been at Auburn; and it should be, 'cause that's a Final Four-caliber team."
And that great crowd left bummed.
Auburn forward Keyshawn Hall, a senior on a "Portal Grand Slam" fourth school in four years, poured in 22 of his team-high 24 points in the first half to help stake the underdog Tigers to a 15-point lead at the break. The margin grew to 18 early in the second period, but a series of Florida runs, led mostly by Haugh on his way to equaling his career-high of 27 points, erased the Auburn advantage and put the Gators (14-6, 5-2) in position for what would have been a seemingly impossible win.
Instead, it was a bitter loss, especially for Coach Todd Golden, given his expectations for a team that was trending upward, not to mention his 20-year close-like-family friendship with Pearl. UF also fell out of first place in the Southeastern Conference standings, where Texas A&M now sits by itself at the top.
"Any time you lose you're disappointed, but we had been playing really well – I don't think we played great – but I first want to credit Auburn. I thought they took the fight to us today," Golden said after losing his first home game since Jan. 14, 2025 against Missouri. "It's a long season. There are ups and downs. We have been through a lot of those already, but it obviously starts with me. You get to a point where you got things rolling a little bit and the moment you feel like you are on the right track, you get punched in the mouth. That's what happened to us."
UF was held to just 37.5% overall from the floor, 7-for-27 from the arc (25.9%) and a decisive 16 of 27 at the free-throw line (59.3%). Haugh was sensational in making nine of his 19 shots, a trio of 3s and grabbing 10 rebounds, but center Rueben Chinyelu (10 points, 7 rebounds) had his string of four straight double doubles halted and forward Alex Condon, the team's No. 2 scorer at 14.1 points per game, was held without a field goal for the first time this season, finishing with one point, nine rebounds and four of the team's 11 turnovers.
Contrast those numbers with what Auburn (13-7, 4-3) put together. The Tigers converted at 48.1% overall, dropped five of 15 from deep (33.3%) and missed just two of 21 free throws (90.5%). They also were competitive on the glass – actually, better than UF in the first half by a 20-13 count – and turned it over only nine times.
Thomas Haugh (10), who equaled the career-high 27 points he scored in the season-opening loss to Arizona, needed some help Saturday against the Tigers.
"We pride ourselves on being the mentally and physically tougher team [and] I don't think we were either of those [today]," Golden said. "We did not respond quickly enough to their early punches and we just couldn't get back on track in the first half."
Haugh started the game with a 3-pointer, but by the first media timeout the Tigers were up 15-5 and Hall had a dozen points on his way to making seven of 11 shots, three of four 3s and all five of his free throws through the first 20 minutes.
Auburn used runs of 12-0 and 12-3 to go to intermission up 43-28.
"That was not us," Chinyelu said of the team's dismal first half.
The Tigers buried a second-chance 3-ball to start the second half to go up 18, the largest deficit for the Gators this season. UF, though, awakened to go on an 13-2 -run, but also missed three free throws along the way in trimming the lead to seven. Auburn got back up nine, but five straight Haugh points made it a four-point game with just over 11 minutes to go.
His two free throws with 8:09 remaining tied the score at 56.
Then came a UF stop, Haugh in transition and what looked like the go-ahead basket with 7:27 to go. Not only was the lead short-lived, it turned out to be non-existent.
Instead, Auburn scored the next six points following the overturned goal-tend, getting a pair of driving baskets by point guard Tahaad Pettiford (11 points) that bracketed a jumper from guard Kevin Overton (10 points) over nearly three minutes, as UF missed five consecutive shots.
The Gators never got closer than four.
With the final horn, the Tigers, collectively, had their fun with the Rowdy Reptiles. To the victors.
Now, after several weeks of hearing how their team was coming together and looking as dangerous as any in the country, the UF coaches and players get to hear about taking a big step back. At home, no less.
"I think we were getting a little ahead of ourselves here, seeing media start to respect us as a team again. Everybody started saying, 'The Gators are back, Gators are back,' " Haugh said. "This is definitely going to motivate us. We got pounced here at home and that just can't happen going forward."
