{"id":1153726,"date":"2025-04-07T10:48:40","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T16:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/?p=1153726"},"modified":"2025-04-07T10:48:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T16:48:40","slug":"auburn-falls-short-of-title-appearance-in-heartbreaking-loss-to-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/auburn-falls-short-of-title-appearance-in-heartbreaking-loss-to-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"Auburn Falls Short of Title Appearance in Heartbreaking Loss to Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Auburn Tigers\u2019 historic basketball season ended earlier than Auburn fans hoped with a heartbreaking 79-73 defeat in the Final Four against the Florida Gators, who now advance to tonight\u2019s national title game against the Houston Cougars.<\/p>\n<p>Auburn had control of the game after the first half, leading 46-38 in a dominant offensive effort, including 12 points by Johni Broome and eight points each from Miles Kelly and Chad Baker-Mazara.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">working those angles \ud83e\udd0c <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/nyeu80riIZ\">pic.twitter.com\/nyeu80riIZ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AuburnMBB\/status\/1908656268568387976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 5, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"in\">BAAAANG \ud83d\udca5 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/31UYSszcp1\">pic.twitter.com\/31UYSszcp1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AuburnMBB\/status\/1908656579844722791?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 5, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Star Gators guard Walter Clayton Jr. however had 14 in the first half, though as it turned out he had something much bigger in store for the second frame.<\/p>\n<p>The Tiger lead did not last long in the second half with a 9-0 Florida run early pulling the game to even with just over 16 minutes left:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">HERE COME THE GATORS \ud83d\udc0a<\/p>\n<p>9-0 RUN FOR FLORIDA \ud83d\udd25 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/LbcnOLeJ0s\">pic.twitter.com\/LbcnOLeJ0s<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BleacherReport\/status\/1908665291455811737?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 5, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Auburn kept throwing punches, but ridiculous shot making from Clayton Jr. kept the Gators right there and made it a heavyweight battle until the end:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">three number 4 for No.1 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/qrGecSvLz3\">pic.twitter.com\/qrGecSvLz3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Florida Gators Men\u2019s Basketball (@GatorsMBK) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GatorsMBK\/status\/1908669223661887875?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 5, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">LATE-GAME WALTER CLAYTON HAS ARRIVED \ud83c\udfaf<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MarchMadness?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#MarchMadness<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GatorsMBK?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@GatorsMBK<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4jsADtBYTT\">pic.twitter.com\/4jsADtBYTT<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MarchMadnessMBB\/status\/1908675178344611966?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 6, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It was a Clayton Jr. And-1 with just under two minutes left which put the Gators up by six and ultimately had the game out of reach:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">WALTER CLAYTON JR. IS NOT HUMAN.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MarchMadness?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#MarchMadness<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KTJN8TMaYB\">pic.twitter.com\/KTJN8TMaYB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MarchMadnessMBB\/status\/1908678804010123264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 6, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Clayton Jr. finished the game with 34 points while\u00a0Alijah Martin\u00a0added 17 of his own.<\/p>\n<p>For the Tigers, a quiet second half from Broome led to him to finishing the game with just 15 while\u00a0Baker-Mazara led\u00a0 with 18 points.<\/p>\n<p>Though it did not end with orange and navy confetti falling in San Antonio, Tigers fans should be proud of the historic and storybook season for the ages. It\u2019s safe to say Auburn under Bruce Pearl is not going anywhere and it wouldn\u2019t be a surprise to anyone to see this team right back in the Final Four next season in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>The Auburn Tigers\u2019 historic basketball season ended earlier than Auburn fans hoped with a heartbreaking 79-73 defeat in the Final Four against the Florida Gators, <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/auburn-falls-short-of-title-appearance-in-heartbreaking-loss-to-florida\/\" title=\"Auburn Falls Short of Title Appearance in Heartbreaking Loss to Florida\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":4874,"featured_media":1047217,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121,145,10,147],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1153726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-au-basketball","8":"category-auburn","9":"category-tigers-plains-war-eagle","10":"category-featured-news"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/ddh240228032_aub_at_tenn-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4874"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1153726"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1153727,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153726\/revisions\/1153727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1047217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1153726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1153726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1153726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}