Auburn basketball entered Saturday’s matchup with Florida one of the hottest teams in the country.

Now dropping its first conference game of the season, following the 90-81 defeat to Florida. How will things shape out for the Tigers the rest of way against conference opponents?

Auburn coach Bruce Pearl told members of the media postgame that his group was due for a letdown.

“I mean, they just came in here like they had to win it. That’s how they played their possession. And they played harder. They played better. They played more desperately,” Bruce Pearl said postgame. “We did not look like the No.1 team in the country. We didn’t act like the No.1 team in the country. We didn’t prepare like it. And as a result, we got beat.”

Florida played poised from start to finish only allowing for Auburn to lead 12:52 minutes of the game. Despite the stellar shooting from guard Walter Clayton Jr., the Gators frontcourt was the gamechangers of the contest.

All eyes were on the forward matchup between Alex Condon and Johni Broome. Condon accepted the challenge finishing with 17 points on just three missed shots.

Off the bench, Florida’s Thomas Haugh added 16 points and nine rebounds as the Tigers had no response for that duo. Haugh and Condon combined for 19 of Florida’s 40 total rebounds.

“That’s how they played last year at Florida. Don’t forget this team had us down 25 last year at Florida. So, it was very much the same. They handed it to us down there and they handed it to us again,” Pearl said. “We were able to get them in the finals of the SEC tournament, but they handed it to us. And they were more physical, they were more aggressive. And as a result, they were more successful.”

For Auburn, it’s main source of offense came from the game’s leading scorer Miles Kelly with 22 points. Broome finished with his 73rd career double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds. However, the Auburn big was not as dominant as he looked against other conference opponents.

Broome finished 8-of-19 from the floor and struggled scoring from close range with the length the Gators presented down low. As a team, Auburn was 13-of-28 on layup attempts.

Florida coach Todd Golden spoke on the gameplan for defending Broome and how that tactic slowed down the entire Auburn offense.

“I think our guys did a great job of sitting on his right shoulder. You know, he’s obviously left hand dominant and we talked to our guys before the game about we’re okay with him making a few over his left shoulder with his right hand, even if they’re easier shots to kind of take him out of his rhythm, take him out of his flow. And he still got back to that right shoulder a couple times, but we made it hard on him,” Golden said.

“I thought Condon was incredibly physical and tough guarding him. So, with him still making eight field goals, I felt like we made him work for all of them.”

With the Tigers travelling to Vanderbilt and Alabama next week, Saturday’s defeat served as a wakeup call for Auburn.

“I’ll go home tonight, start working on a little bit of Vanderbilt, probably look at this a little bit, and just keep doing what we do, you know. You got to embrace the grind. There’s no question it’s a grind. It’s a grind for everybody,” Pearl said.

“We go to Vanderbilt where they’ve only lost once at home. And they’ve beaten Kentucky, and they just beat Texas [Saturday], and they’ve beaten Tennessee. So, you know, we know that we know that’s going to be a tough place to win.”

Jerry Humphrey III covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Jerryhump3 or email him at [email protected].