For the first time in more than 700 days, a stunned silence fell over Neville Arena as the game clock hit zeroes.

There was no celebration in front of The Jungle, no postgame jubilance from the packed house — which began to thin out with 2:36 left in the game — only an unfamiliar feeling on the Plains. Just like that, Auburn’s 28-game home winning streak — the longest active streak in the nation entering the night — was gone.

Texas A&M 79, No. 15 Auburn 63.

In the Tigers’ first home game since claiming the top designation last Thursday—thanks to Gonzaga’s home loss to Loyola Marymount — their run of consecutive wins on their home floor was halted in its tracks as the Aggies decided to play spoiler at Neville Arena on Wednesday night. The loss, which was Auburn’s first on the Plains since Feb. 23, 2021, also snapped the Tigers’ five-game winning streak in SEC play.

Auburn got off to a promising start against Texas A&M, staking an early 10-2 lead in the game’s opening minutes thanks to a 10-0 spurt, but things came unraveled for the Tigers on both ends of the court not long thereafter. Texas A&M settled in after Auburn’s opening surge, and the Aggies seized control as they outscored the Tigers 43-20 the rest of the first half.

Texas A&M closed the first half on a 13-2 run and took a 15-point advantage into the locker room, as Auburn scored just two points over the final seven minutes of the opening stanza. Eight of Texas A&M’s 17 first-half baskets were either dunks or layups, while six more came from beyond the arc as Auburn’s defense struggled to get stops. The Aggies led by double figures for most the rest of the way, with the Tigers trimming the lead to single digits a handful of times but never getting closer than within eight during the second half.

Only two Auburn players scored in double figures, with Wendell Green Jr. Johni Broome scoring 16 apiece, as the Tigers’ supporting cast was unable to provide enough on a night that belonged to the Aggies and Tyrece Radford, who scored a game-high 30 points and pulled down nine rebounds.

Here are AL.com’s takeaways from Wednesday’s game:

The law of averages caught up to Auburn and provided a boost for Texas A&M

Auburn entered Wednesday night with the nation’s second-best perimeter defense, limiting opponents to just 25.1 percent on 3-point attempts this season. Only No. 4 Tennessee, at 21.8 percent entering the day, had a more efficient 3-point defense than Bruce Pearl’s team.

Texas A&M, meanwhile, came into Neville Arena as one of the nation’s worst perimeter shooting teams, ranking 303rd nationally while hitting at a 31.5 percent clip on the season.

Both the Tigers and the Aggies saw their fortunes turn Wednesday night, and it factored heavily into Texas A&M’s upset bid at Neville Arena. Texas A&M connected on seven of its 19 3-point attempts against Auburn. While that was just a 36.8 percent clip, the Aggies got off to a particularly hot start from deep, knocking down six of their first nine attempts during the game’s first 13 minutes. The sixth make, from Wade Taylor IV, gave Texas A&M a seven-point lead at that juncture — its largest to that point as Buzz Williams’ team seized control late in the first half.

The Aggies cooled off from deep after that, making just one of their final 10 attempts from beyond the arc.

The turnover bug returns

During Auburn’s five-game winning streak in SEC play, it mostly did a good job of limiting turnovers and taking care of the ball. The Tigers committed nine or fewer turnovers in four of those wins, with the victory against Mississippi State (18 giveaways) an outlier.

The turnover bug returned Wednesday night, and it was costly for Auburn. The Tigers committed 14 turnovers on the night—with nine of them coming off Aggies steals and leading to 18 points for Texas A&M. Pearl’s team had a couple of costly ones late in the second half that put a damper on Auburn’s hopes of a late-game rally.

With Auburn trailing by 10 at the under-8 timeout, with 7:40 to play, the Tigers had a chance to get within single digits. Wendell Green Jr. drove the baseline and dished it to Johni Broome for what would have been a routine layup, but the big man couldn’t corral the pass, and the ball went out of bounds to Texas A&M. The Aggies took advantage of the Tigers’ 12th turnover to that point, responding with a layup on the other end to push the lead back to a dozen.

Auburn’s 13th giveaway came just more than a minute later, as Green turned it over near midcourt while trailing by nine, leading to a Radford jumper that made it 63-52 with 5:43 to play.

Chris Moore was back in action, with a different role

Chris Moore missed, essentially, four games after injuring his right shoulder in the opening minutes of Auburn’s game against Ole Miss on Jan. 10. The junior forward, who started the first 16 games of the season, didn’t return to that game against the Rebels and missed each of the Tigers’ last three wins—against Mississippi State, and on the road against LSU and South Carolina.

On Wednesday night against Texas A&M, Moore made his return to the court for Auburn. Though he didn’t start — Allen Flanigan drew his fourth consecutive start at the three — Moore came off the bench and provided the Tigers with some welcomed toughness in the frontcourt rotation against a physical Aggies lineup.

Moore checked into the game at the first media timeout, with 15:50 to play in the first half and Auburn ahead 13-9. He entered the game playing the four, alongside Flanigan at the three. There was some clear rust, as he turned the ball over on his first possession after he got caught in the air along the baseline under the basket with no one to pass to. Moore played 12 minutes off the bench, all at the four — which pushed freshman Yohan Traore out of the rotation, with Lior Berman backing up Flanigan on the wing against the Aggies — and finished the game scoreless with just one rebound.

AL.com will update this post.

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Medi Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.