Auburn Falls Short vs. No. 23 Georgia in Overtime Thriller

BOX SCORE | SEASON STATS

ATHENS, Ga. – If the rest of the SEC season is anything like Auburn’s conference opener, Tiger fans are in for a wild ride.

Auburn scored four points in the final second of regulation to force overtime before falling to No. 23 Georgia 104-100 Saturday at Stegeman Coliseum in the Tigers’ SEC opener.

Clutch at its finest😤‼️ pic.twitter.com/bnYD9tzeOZ
— Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) January 3, 2026

“Disappointing result,” Auburn coach Steven Pearl said. “It’s hard to win on the road but we put ourselves in positions in a lot of ways to win this game against a ranked opponent. Just came up short.”

With Auburn trailing 92-88 after a Georgia dunk with five seconds to play, Keyshawn Hall drew a foul while attempting a 3-pointer with .7 on the clock.

After making the first two free throws, Hall intentionally missed the third, which Kevin Overton rebounded before swishing home a 10-foot baseline jumper at the buzzer to send the game to overtime tied 92-92, a stunning sequence for the visitors.

“This is the first time we showed ourselves that if you just keep playing, you’ll be okay, no matter the score,” Overton said. “It shows that we have fight. It gives me hope that we have a chance to do something special.”

Overton came up big again in OT, evening the score with a layup after Georgia scored first, then hitting a 3-pointer that gave Auburn a 97-95 lead with 3:57 to play.

After Elyjah Freeman made a free throw to put the Tigers up three with 2:56 remaining, Georgia claimed momentum with a 7-0 run that featured two 3-pointers by Jeremiah Wilkinson, the game’s leading scorer with 31 points.

“You’ve got to have a little bit of pride in not letting those guards go for 31 and 24,” said Pearl, referencing Wilkinson and backcourt mate Marcus Millender, who scored 24 points and made 5-of-7 3-pointers. “It’s not the 3s I’m as concerned about. I’m more concerned about the one-on-one drives where they get into the paint. My biggest challenge for our guys is we have to have more of an identity in our one-on-one defense.”

Auburn wasn’t done. Hall made a layup that pulled the Tigers within two with 50 seconds to play. Auburn then got the stop it needed, but the Tigers turned it over with five seconds left, a costly miscue that led to a pair of free throws and the final four-point margin.

Down the stretch in regulation, Overton’s layup gave Auburn its last lead with 5:37 to play in a game that featured 11 lead changes and single-digit leads from start to finish.

With 1:22 to play and the Tigers trailing by two, Filip Jovic was called for a foul on what appeared to be a clean steal, sending Georgia to the line for two free throws that gave the Bulldogs an 87-83 lead.

After the Tigers missed a 3-pointer, Jovic blocked a shot at the other end and Tahaad Pettiford scored on a floater in the lane to trim Georgia’s lead to 87-85 with 22 seconds remaining.

The Bulldogs capitalized on an Auburn turnover and took a five-point lead on three free throws before Hall’s 3-point play brought the Tigers back within two with six seconds to go.

Georgia beat Auburn’s full-court press with a long pass and a dunk to go up 92-88 with five seconds left, setting the stage for Auburn’s dramatic last-second rally.

Auburn outrebounded Georgia 50-35, getting seven rebounds apiece from Hall, Overton, KeShawn Murphy and Sebastian Williams-Adams and 10 from Jovic, who added 10 points to register his first double-double before fouling out in OT.

“This team (Georgia) is top 10 in the nation in rebounding, and we outrebounded them by 15,” Pearl said. “Filip was a phenomenal spark off the bench. He was plus-5 in plus-minus, did a lot of really good things for us. Filip is incredibly effective in those areas because he plays hard. We need more of that. His identity is to play hard and to win.”

Pettiford led the Tigers with 25 points before fouling out late in regulation. Hall scored 20 points, Overton contributed 19, Freeman scored 14 and Murphy added a dozen.

Auburn struggled at the rim and the free-throw line, missing 17 layups and 12 free throws, bothered by Georgia’s 6-11 center Somto Cyril, who blocked five shots, grabbed six rebounds and scored 15 points on 6-for-6 shooting.

Georgia (13-1, 1-0) won its seventh straight game, improved to 10-0 at home and ended Auburn’s five-game series win streak.

The Tigers (9-5, 0-1) return to the Plains Tuesday for their home opener vs. Texas A&M at 8 p.m. CT on SEC Network and the Auburn Sports Network.

Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer