2025 Final Four: Florida comes back to defeat Auburn, advance to national championship
Saturday night, the 2025 Final Four officially gets underway. Auburn will take on Florida in the opener as the two teams look to secure a spot in Monday’s national championship game.
There are plenty of storylines in the matchup. For starters, Wooden Award finalists Johni Broome and Walter Clayton Jr. will go head-to-head on the sport’s biggest stage. But the coaching matchup is also interesting as Florida head coach Todd Golden faces close friend Bruce Pearl, for whom he worked at Auburn.
Ultimately, it was Golden’s Gators who came out on top, defeating Pearl’s Tigers in a thriller. Florida will get ready to face either Duke or Houston in the national title game on Monday.
Final: Florida 79, Auburn 73
04/05/2025 07:42:42 PMFlorida outscored Auburn 41-27 in the second half – led by 20 points after the break and 34 on the night from Walter Clayton Jr. – to defeat the Tigers 79-73. The Gators will now head back to the national championship game for the first time since the 2007 title.
Stage set for thrilling finish
04/05/2025 07:18:46 PMAuburn continued to respond to Florida’s huge shots down the stretch, making it a one-point game as the Gators led 69-68 at the final media timeout with 3:20 to play. Walter Clayton Jr. leads all scorers with 27 points, including a 5-of-8 showing from three-point territory.
Alijah Martin throws down ferocious dunk
04/05/2025 07:12:48 PMAfter a breakaway dunk earlier in the second half, Alijah Martin brought the house down with a ferocious dunk with 5:27 to play. He went up and over Chad Baker-Mazara for a poster dunk to fire up the Florida faithful and make it a three-point Gators lead.
Big-time shot-making continues down the stretch
04/05/2025 07:08:16 PMAn alley-up from Johni Broome to Dylan Cardwell electrified the Auburn crowd in attendance at the Alamodome as the Tigers went back up, 63-62. But Thomas Haugh answered on the other end with a driving layup to help Florida regain a 64-63 advantage with 6:29 remaining as the two teams continued to trade blows.
Florida capitalizing on Auburn turnovers, re-takes lead
04/05/2025 07:01:18 PMFlorida continues to take full advantage of seven Auburn turnovers in the second half and takes a 60-58 lead into the media timeout with 7:47 to go. The Tigers haven’t scored in 3:38 and are just 4-for-11 from the field as a team out of the break.
Auburn holding on to three-point lead
04/05/2025 06:50:18 PMAfter Florida took a 51-49 lead, Auburn rattled off a run of its own to jump back out in front, 57-54 with 11:25 left in the game. Walter Clayton Jr. continues to make his mark with a game-high 22 points before heading to the free throw line out of the media timeout.
Rueben Chinyelu called for Flagrant 1
04/05/2025 06:43:34 PMWhile defending in the paint, Florida’s Rueben Chinyelu was called for a foul on Auburn’s Denver Jones after an apparent elbow to the face. The officials went to the monitor and upgraded it to a Flagrant 1, and Jones hit both free throws with 14:38 to go to put Auburn back on top, 53-51.
Florida gets off to lightning fast start to tie things up
04/05/2025 06:35:12 PMIt would’ve been hard to draw up a better start to the half for Florida. The Gators outscored Auburn 11-3 in the first four minutes out of the break – including a 9-0 run over the last 1:51 – to tie the game up at 49-49 with 15:57 to go.
Second half underway
04/05/2025 06:29:08 PMFlorida had possession to start the second half. Rueben Chinyelu hit a jumper on the opening possession to get the final 20 minutes underway.
Halftime: Auburn 46, Florida 38
04/05/2025 06:06:48 PMAt halftime, Auburn held a 46-38 lead after a late free throw from Denver Jones in the final second. Johni Broome led the Tigers with 12 points and four rebounds while Walter Clayton Jr. had a game-high 14 points for Florida heading into the locker room.
Florida still hanging around late in 1st half
04/05/2025 05:49:59 PMWalter Clayton Jr. started to make an impact as the first half started to wind down. He and Alijah Martin both have 10 points heading into the final media timeout of the half with 3:33 to play. Auburn still leads, 33-29.
U8: Auburn 29, Florida 25
04/05/2025 05:41:06 PMAuburn started to generate some momentum entering the next media timeout, taking a 29-25 lead with 7:52 to go in the first half. Alijah Martin is helping Florida keep pace, though, with a game-high 10 points to start things off.
Johni Broome making presence known
04/05/2025 05:29:32 PMChad Baker-Mazara leads Auburn with eight points at the under-12 media timeout, but Johni Broome made his presence known in a big way through the first 8:30. He had six points and two rebounds, but also had a big-time block on the defensive end as the Tigers stayed out in front, 20-18.
Florida, Auburn trade buckets out of the gate
04/05/2025 05:19:57 PMThrough the first 6:29 of Saturday’s game, both Auburn and Florida traded shots as part of a lightning fast start. The Tigers took a 16-14 lead into the under-16 media timeout at the 14:31 mark as both teams shot better than 54% from the field out of the gate.
Tip-off
04/05/2025 05:11:07 PMAuburn won the tip-off, and the 2025 Final Four is underway. Florida will control the second-half tip-off.
Final point spread
04/05/2025 04:30:35 PMFlorida is a 2.5-point favorite over Auburn in Saturday’s Final Four game, according to FanDuel. The over-under is set at 159.5.