It was a valiant effort on the road against the No. 9 Auburn Tigers, but Florida dropped its second-straight game to begin SEC play in spite of that. The Gators overcame an early deficit and fought to the end, but the Tigers ultimately pulled away late in the second half to secure an 85-73 win.
Florida (9-5, 0-2 SEC) clearly was impacted early on by the raucous home crowd at Auburn Arena. Heading into Saturday night’s contest, UF had only played one true road game this season, a loss to Oklahoma. Auburn (14-1, 3-0 SEC) jumped out to a 13-point lead in the first 10 minutes, which the Gators had to fight hard just to cut to nine at the break.
The team never led in this one after hitting a three to score the first points of the game, and though it cut the lead to one in the second half, Auburn’s offensive barrage proved to be too much.
Florida had an opportunity for a huge win in this game, but it came up short once again and will have to dig itself out of an early hole in conference play. Here are three takeaways from the latest setback.