Auburn was picked to finish sixth in the SEC by the league’s coaches in the preseason.

And Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl has maintained all season that he thought that was an appropriate assessment of his team heading into the season.

“I thought this team could be good. I thought this team would be good with a chance to be very good. And I did think that picked sixth is about where I would’ve picked us, sixth or seventh,” Pearl said Wednesday. “So they’ve exceeded my expectations a little bit. Instead this was a team that was very good with a chance to be great.”

And on Sunday afternoon, on a hockey-rink-turned-basketball-court inside Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, the Tigers’ “chance to be great” became a reality as Auburn beat Florida 86-67 to win its third SEC Tournament championship and its first since 2019.

Auburn’s SEC title draw likely caused a bit of uneasiness for Tigers’ fans after the Gators got the best of the Tigers during the regular season in what was really the only game all year that Auburn got beat tipoff to final whistle.

But for those inside Auburn’s locker room, it was probably the exact matchup they were hoping for since it’d come with an opportunity to avenge February’s loss to Florida.

“I think we do,” Pearl said Wednesday when asked if he thought the Tigers played better with a chip on their shoulder.

And it appeared such was the case Sunday afternoon as Auburn was the first team to find the scoreboard with a made layup from junior Johni Broome, who ended up being named tournament MVP. And from that first bucket until the very last whistle, the Tigers were out front.

In the opening half, Auburn stretched its advantage out to as many as 12 points while Florida struggled to find any success offensively.

When both teams took to the locker room at the intermission, Auburn had constructed a 38-30 lead off a 13-for-33 shooting performance and a 10-for-11 effort from the free throw line. Meanwhile, Florida was just 9-for-32 from the field and was being kept afloat by a 12-for-13 performance from the charity stripe.

But if Auburn knew a thing about Florida, it was that the Gators weren’t going to roll over for dead just because they were trailing by eight points at the midway points.

Even when Auburn freshman Aden Holloway sank a 3-pointer to open the second half and stretch the Tigers’ lead back out to double digits, the Gators didn’t fold.

Instead, Florida fired back with an 14-4 run. And suddenly, Auburn’s 11-point lead was a mere one-point lead.

But following Auburn’s loss to Tennessee on Feb. 28 in a game that set the Tigers back in the SEC regular season title hunt, those in Auburn’s locker room decided they were done losing.

“Really just not lose another game for the rest of the season, that’s where our mindset is going into this postseason, to get us some championships to finish out the season,” Holloway said Wednesday.

So after Florida’s run, Auburn countered back with one of its own — sparked by a Chris Moore layup.

Following Moore’s layup, the Tigers orchestrated a 10-0 run, bolstered by a pair of made 3-pointers from sophomore Tre Donaldson, to get back out in front of the Gators by 11 points.

“Basketball is a game of runs. But it’s about how you respond. You got to take the punches, but you also got to give some back,” Broome said after the game. “I feel like we came to the sideline. It was their run, it’s time to make our run now. We went on a run and never looked back.”

From that point on, Auburn’s lead was never fewer than nine points. And with three minutes left to play, the Tigers had built their biggest lead of the game at 21 points.

At that point, Pearl emptied his bench, giving Auburn’s reserves an opportunity to get a taste of playing in the SEC title game.

And while reality had surely set in and the Tigers knew the were just minutes away from capturing the SEC title, those who had come off the floor remained locked in on the game that was unfolding in front of them — celebrating their teammates, who were getting their well-deserved moment on center stage.

“I’ve never coached a team that got along better than this team,” Pearl said after the win.

It showed Sunday as the team that was picked to finish sixth in the league ended its SEC run with Baker-Mazara FaceTiming his mother while sitting on the floor, back resting against the scorer’s table.

“We did it, Ma. We did it.” Baker-Mazara told her. “I told you we was going to do it.”