An extremely rare announcement rang out over the PA system as the final few seconds ticked off of the game clock, one unfamiliar to the ears of the Auburn faithful.
"Fans, for your safety, please stay off the court following the game," echoed off the walls of a silent Auburn Arena.
Cinmeon Bowers' free throw passing through the net was the only sound in the building — for a fraction of a second.
And then, Auburn Arena erupted.
Fans poured onto the court, sprinting past futile efforts by security personnel to deter them, as a mass formed at center court to celebrate Auburn's 75-70 win over No. 14 Kentucky.
The Tigers used a furious second-half rally to erase a 12-point deficit and knock off the Wildcats for the first time in 19 tries, and the second in 34.
"We competed," Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. "We weren't intimidated by the moment."
Auburn (8-8, 2-3) held Kentucky to just 34.7 percent shooting for the game and to 33.3 percent from beyond the arc. While the Tigers shot marginally better at 38.2 percent, they connected on twice as many 3-pointers as Kentucky, five of which came from Kareem Canty.
Canty led everyone with 26 points and Tyler Harris collected his seventh double-double of the season with 21 points and 11 rebounds.
And Canty, Auburn's leading scorer and biggest playmaker, laid his body on the line for his team and for this win.
With Auburn trailing 67-65, Canty streaked down the court and contorted his body to roll in a layup. When he landed, his ankle turned, and Canty went down to the floor in excruciating pain.
But after a timeout, Canty shook it off and drained a free throw to give Auburn the lead for good.
The win snaps a three-game losing streak for the Tigers, who were without Tahj Shamsid-Deen and T.J. Dunans, and will be without them for an extended period of time.
Down a pair of rotation players, Auburn needed every ounce of energy it could muster to knock off the Wildcats.
Kentucky guard Jamal Murray led the Wildcats with 20 points on 8-22 shooting, and Tyler Ulis was two assists away from a triple double, finishing with 17 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.
The pair constantly hounded Canty in the backcourt, forcing him to make plays in the middle of a swarming defense.
Canty had the eyes of his neighborhood back home in Harlem watching him, and as a result he played the first half unusually anxiously. But once his teammates talked to him in the locker room at halftime, Canty found his groove.
In the second half, Canty shot 5-11 and 4-6 from the 3-point line to key the Tigers to a season--and program--changing win.
When the Wildcats jumped out to that 12-point lead, Canty said the motivation to keep fighting was simple.
"We told each other, 'Be right here,'" Canty said. "It's easy to quit when you're down...We was down, what, 12? And we started inching away at it slowly, and before you know it we've got the lead."
And with that lead in hand, and Tyler Harris headed to the line, Bowers roared into the crowd, letting out all the emotions of an Auburn program that hadn't beaten a ranked opponent since 2012.
"It's crazy, man," Bowers said. "We just beat Kentucky, we just made history."
And Canty, when told Kentucky wasn't "vintage" Kentucky, that this wasn't the same Kentucky of old, offered up a summary of the future of this Auburn program.
"We're not the vintage Auburn team," Canty said.
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