Auburn Shuts Down No. 16 Florida's Biggest Strength in Monster Win Over Gators

The Auburn Tigers picked up their most impressive win of the season on Saturday evening, taking down the No. 16 Florida Gators 76-67.

Auburn managed to come away with a victory in Gainesville, Fla., for the first time since 1996 behind a strong performance from the entire squad of Tigers on both ends of the court.

The Jungle > the swamp pic.twitter.com/qdbPTkHAks
— Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) January 25, 2026

Senior “Big Guard” Keyshawn Hall stood out from the opening tip, finishing with 24 points, seven rebounds, and four assists, including 22 in the opening half for the Tigers. Center KeShawn Murphy also played a vital role in Auburn’s historic win, posting 16 points and nine rebounds, while also going 6-of-6 from the free throw line.

However, despite the Tigers shooting 48.1% from the field and 90.5% (19-of-21) at the charity stripe, Auburn’s ability to shut down Florida’s dangerous frontcourt was maybe the most crucial trend that emerged from its win in the O’Connell Center.

The Gators are nationally regarded as the best rebounding team in all of college basketball, and the Tigers were able to visibly and statistically slow them down on Saturday.

Florida ranks first in the country in rebounds per game (46.5), offensive rebounds per game (17.2), and rebound margin (+15). In Auburn’s win, the Tigers held Florida to just 39 total rebounds, 17 offensive rebounds, which included the quick two offensive boards that the Gators captured on their last possession of the game, and the rebound margin finished at +7 in favor of Florida.

The first half won the game for Auburn, though, as it held Florida to just four offensive rebounds and 13 total boards in the first 20 minutes of action. If the Gators’ last possession is excluded in the final statistics, during which Florida chucked a couple of long threes that led to long offensive rebounds, Auburn would’ve held them to 37 total and 15 offensive. That would’ve also led to a +5 margin for the Gators, which is a third of their average.

In addition to extreme effort on the glass, Steven Pearl’s defensive gameplan was executed to almost perfection, as Auburn did all it could to slow down Florida’s arsenal of bigs. Alex Condon, Micah Handlogten, and Rueben Chinyelu, who is one of the nation’s most physical forwards, were kept in check for the most part.

Condon scored one point with nine rebounds, Handlogten wasn’t a factor with two points and three boards, and Chinyelu recorded 10 points and seven rebounds. Chinyelu has emerged as one of the best bigs in the country, notching 15+ points and 10+ rebounds in the four games prior to Auburn, including a 15-point, 21-rebound performance against LSU on Tuesday.

Chinyelu has totaled more than 10 rebounds in 13 games this season, but the Tigers managed to slow him down, posting just nine in their win.

Pearl and company made an obvious effort to swarm the basketball when Florida got the ball down low and forced the Gators’ guards to beat them. Auburn's main focus was defending the paint and limiting the best frontcourt in the nation, and the Tigers did just that.

“We didn’t let their size affect us,” Pearl said after the game. “We wanted to make them settle for jump shots. The biggest difference in the first half was we held them to four offensive rebounds (on 16 missed shots). It’s the reason why we won the game.”

An Auburn Tiger W‼️ pic.twitter.com/tMA1ghDddM
— Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) January 24, 2026

This is extremely encouraging for this team, as size was a massive concern following Auburn’s blowout losses to Michigan and Purdue. There were questions regarding the Tigers’ ability to compete against teams with strong frontcourt play, but Auburn proved on Saturday that with relentless effort and energy on the defensive end of the floor, they can still match up with – and defeat – squads that may present more size.