{"id":131193,"date":"2026-01-25T12:03:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T12:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/131193\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T12:03:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T12:03:06","slug":"what-steven-pearl-told-auburn-when-florida-tied-the-game-in-second-half-we-embraced-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/131193\/","title":{"rendered":"What Steven Pearl told Auburn when Florida tied the game in second half: \u2018We embraced it\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Auburn basketball<\/a> led Florida by as much as 18 points at the start of the Saturday\u2019s second half. <\/p>\n

Florida then put together a 26-11 run to tie it at 54 a little under the 8-minute mark, as the raucous Gators crowd began shift momentum back.<\/p>\n

Auburn coach Steven Pearl shared the message he gave his team after calling a timeout when Florida stormed back from its double-digit deficit. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey tied the game with 7:50 left, and that\u2019s an eternity in college basketball. They had all the momentum in the world. We were in a timeout, and we were like, \u2018You guys, if I were to tell you that with 7:50 left, we\u2019re going to be tied against one of the best teams in college basketball on the road, would you take it?\u2019 And they were like, \u2018F— yeah. Let\u2019s go\u2019\u201d Pearl said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey did a great job of responding, and we hit back. I told them we were going to be up five at the next media timeout, and we were up six,\u201d Pearl added. \u201cOur guys responded and did a great job of taking that team\u2019s punch. <\/p>\n

\u201cThree weeks ago, our team would\u2019ve folded and let all that pressure get to us. Our team did a great job of hanging in there and staying together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gainesville,GAINESVILLE, FL – JANUARY 24 – The Auburn Men’s Basketball Team during the game between the Auburn Tigers and the #16 Florida Gators at Exactech Arena in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026.<\/p>\n

Photo by Zach Bland\/Auburn TigersZach Bland\/Auburn Tigers<\/p>\n

After Florida tied the score, the Gators connected on just two field goals for the remainder of the game. Auburn held the Gators to shooting 37% from the floor and upset No. 16 Florida 76-67. <\/p>\n

Florida coach Todd Golden attributed the late-game struggles to fatigue, but the Gators\u2019 poor free-throw shooting \u2014 just 59%\u2014 also played a role.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I think that was a big part of it. We dug ourselves in an 18-point deficit, crawled all the way back to take a two-point lead, and got a tough reversal on the goaltend,\u201d Golden said. \u201cAnd they made a couple of tough shots after that, but we had dug ourselves in too big of a hole with defense in the first half, and obviously, the free-throw shooting. But I do think a big part of it was the fact that we had to expend so much energy getting back in the ballgame.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Florida\u2019s comeback, The Tigers went on an 8-2 run of their own for a a six-point lead in the final four minutes. <\/p>\n

Auburn had four reach double-digit scoring point totals, as the Tigers backcourt duo of Tahaad Pettiford and Kevin Overton combined for 21 points. <\/p>\n

Keyshawn Hall led the Tigers with 24 points and KeShawn Murphy added 16 points and nine rebounds down low. <\/p>\n

Overton spoke on Auburn\u2019s postgame radio show about the game-changing moment that led to Auburn\u2019s victory over Florida. <\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, they made their runs, but I think with our team we can prevail through adversity,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we did that around the 7:51 mark on the clock. Just in that moment we knew we had been here a thousand times and we pushed through. <\/p>\n

\u201cMost of our team has been in situations like these. Loud gym and road game vibe where we just embrace the moment. And we embraced it together,\u201d Overton added. <\/p>\n

Auburn improves to 13-7 overall and 4-3 against conference opponents. The Tigers will host Texas in their next game Wednesday night on ESPN2. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Auburn basketball led Florida by as much as 18 points at the start of the Saturday\u2019s second half.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[19635,28,30,29,13202],"class_list":["post-131193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-away-game","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-mbb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}