SAN ANTONIO — “All day! All day!”

Those were the words Auburn star big man Johni Broome yelled into the ear of Florida counterpart Alex Condon as they ran down the floor together, after the first possession of Saturday’s all-SEC national semifinal at the Alamodome. On that first possession, Broome backed Condon down, burying him in the paint, as Broome likes to do to opponents. He turned and hit a short jumper. He told Condon all about it. He likes to do that, too.

And his words resonated for one half of basketball — Auburn leading 46-38, Broome with 12 points and four rebounds, Condon (one point, two turnovers) and Florida’s other bigs searching for answers. But one nightmare of a half for Broome later, and his Auburn career was over.

When the Auburn locker room finally opened, long after the 79-73 loss went final, Auburn coach Bruce Pearl and Denver Jones hopped on a golf cart to take them to their news conference.

Broome followed a few seconds later, a hoodie pulled tightly over his face. He sat next to Pearl on the back of the cart and put his head down. His shoulders shook as he sobbed. Pearl rubbed Broome’s back as the cart took off down the concourse.

Florida will play for the national championship on Monday because it had the best player on the court — Walter Clayton Jr., scorer of 34 points. Also, because it shut down one of the two best players in men’s college basketball this season. Broome had three points after halftime, none in the final 15 minutes and 12 seconds.

“I don’t know what to think right now,” Broome said, barely above a whisper, back in the Auburn locker room after grinding his way through his final news conference as a college basketball player. No one hated the way it ended more, no one took it harder in that room than Broome.

He paused for a few seconds.

“I don’t know.”

Florida had more to say about it after the Gators’ second win in two tries against the Tigers this season. In the first, a more free-flowing 90-81 game at Auburn, Broome had 18 points but shot just 8-for-19, Condon doing the bulk of the work in making things difficult for him.

That’s the bulk of the work but not all of it. And that’s one of the reasons Florida is here, too: the Gators’ frontcourt depth. They could throw Rueben Chinyelu, Micah Handlogten and even power forward Thomas Haugh occasionally at Broome.

They did that on Saturday, and they were physical with him and more effective in the second half at not letting him go to his left hand over his right shoulder.

“We were a bit shocked in the first half; we didn’t get to the spots we needed to early on, but I think we did a good job of executing what the coaches wanted us to do toward the end of the game,” said Condon, who ended up fouling out and finishing with that single point but had some big defensive moments including drawing a key charge on Broome. “Keeping him scoreless the last 15 minutes is good news for us.

“We just tried to push him to (shoot over) his left shoulder. He’s a very one-sided player, I believe, but he’s really good at finishing with his left hand. If we push him into help and make him counter or make him go to the middle, we’ll have guys that can get deflections or contest the shot a little bit.”

Florida coach Todd Golden was determined not to double Broome, for fear of Auburn’s guards getting clean 3-point looks. He credited his depth and better execution for the dramatic shift. Pearl wondered aloud if the Tigers worked hard enough in the second half to get the ball to Broome — his guards are prone to casting up early, average shots — and noted the Gators fought hard to deny Broome his favorite places on the floor.

“I’m going to give Florida credit defensively for stepping up,” Pearl said. “I just think that passing and catching and fighting for your real estate, getting your spots, not letting them push you out of position, I think that’s why we didn’t execute.”

Both sides left with complaints about the physicality of the game. Broome, who hyperextended his elbow in Auburn’s Elite Eight win over Michigan State, had it wrapped heavily. He pleaded with officials multiple times in the first half, pointing at the elbow as if indicating the Gators were giving it extra bumps.

Asked about that, Broome said: “Yeah. Um, part of basketball, some of it’s part of basketball. Some was just the game plan, I guess? I was able to play through it, though. Nothing too serious.”

In the winning locker room, Condon addressed a late flare-up between Broome and a few Gators that quickly was stifled by officials.

“Yeah, it was very physical,” Condon said. “I think he made a few dirty plays down the stretch, which is why I got chippy in the end. But I still have a lot of respect for Johni; he’s a very talented player. I got a little elbow to the teeth. My teeth have been messed up for a while now, so I didn’t appreciate that down the stretch.”

In the end, no one walked away seriously hurt. The teams shook hands. Broome got a hug and a few words from the greatest Auburn basketball player before Broome took the sport by storm this season: Charles Barkley, who “thanked me for what I’ve done for Auburn,” Broome said.

And even though Florida got the last word and gets one more game, Broome was able to hang in there and find some whispered perspective before leaving the Alamodome.

“It’s been a special year,” he said. “Probably the best year of my life. You know, I wanted to win a national championship. It hurts.”