Down his backcourt partner and Florida’s second-leading scorer, Gators point guard Walter Clayton Jr. delivered a performance worthy of knocking off the No. 1 team in the country.

Despite being at the top of the scouting report, he finished with 19 points, nine assists, six rebounds and four 3-pointers as No. 6 Florida knocked off the top-ranked Tigers 90-81.

Sixteen of Clayton’s 19 points came in the first half, nearly hitting his 17.4 points per game average in the first 20 minutes.

“Our game plan defensively was to try to get the ball out of his hands,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said after the game. “And after the first couple possessions, you would never know that that was our game plan.”

When asked why Auburn was not able to stick to its gameplan of denying Clayton the ball, Pearl pointed to a lack of effort.

“It just required multiple effort,” Pearl said, “And we just didn’t give it.”

Clayton only scored three in the second half on 1-for-5 shooting, but had seven assists as Florida’s offense performed better than anyone else against the Tigers this season. The Gators’ 90 points and 13 3-pointers were both season highs for Auburn’s defense.

There was uncertainty around whether Clayton would even play against Auburn, missing Florida’s previous game with an ankle injury. Head coach Todd Golden announced Friday that Clayton would play, and the senior from Lake Wales, Florida, hardly looked limited.

Without Alijah Martin (15.3 PPG) Clayton had to carry much of the offensive load in the backcourt, which he did in multiple facets.

While Martin wasn’t on the court, Clayton credited the impact he brought to the game from the bench, a role that Clayton played when he missed Florida’s win over Vanderbilt due to injury.

“Alijah wasn’t on the court, but Alijah was still there,” Clayton said after the game. “It was just a lot of great communication between us today and we executed like coach said.”

Clayton’s 19 points jump out, but his nine assists to three turnovers helped Florida’s offense continually break down Auburn’s often slow to react defense.

“We had a game plan that we thought was going to be effective. It wasn’t,” Pearl said. “We kept on trying to get the guys to execute that game plan instead of maybe we could have made some adjustments.”

Miles Kelly, one of Auburn’s perimeter defenders, was also asked what made Clayton so hard to slow down, he pointed to his shooting ability, but also talked about his playmaking.

“Ultimately we impacted ball screens and got the ball out of his hands,” Kelly said, “But other guys made shots.”

Many of Florida’s nine non-Clayton 3-pointers came on wide open looks, and the Gators could have stretched the lead even further if a few more of those clean looks fell in the second half.

If you look at Auburn’s schedule now, you can argue that its two losses came in its two worst defensive performances. The losses to Duke and Florida were the two highest point totals the Tigers have allowed this season, and Pearl said after the Duke loss that Auburn did not “bother” the Blue Devils enough defensively.

The same can be said against Florida, and this time, Pearl didn’t seem satisfied with his team’s effort.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m