A miracle heave at the buzzer by Auburn’s KeShawn Murphy was waived off by officials after a long replay review, giving Texas A&M a 90-88 road victory Tuesday night over the Tigers.
Texas A&M (12-3, 2-0 SEC), which trailed by 16 in the second half, led 90-88 with guard Pop Isaacs at the free throw line with two seconds left.
Isaacs missed the first free throw, and intentionally missed the second just heaving the ball at the basket hard. Auburn (9-6, 0-2) got the rebound and missed a long shot, but officials stopped play to review whether Isaacs’ miss had hit the rim. They ruled it did not and gave Auburn the ball out of bounds 70 feet away from the basket with six-tenths of a second left.
Murphy was able to catch a pass, turn and loft a shot into the basket from the far sideline near midcourt and Auburn celebrated, but officials reviewed the shot and waved it off.
Isaacs led Texas A&M with 21 and a game-high five assists. Jacari Lane added 17, and Ruben Dominguez and Rashaun Agee tallied 14 apiece.
Keyshawn Hall had 32 points and 12 rebounds to lead Auburn, and Kevin Overton scored 16.
Auburn appeared to have everything under control with a 61-45 lead at the 13:29 mark, only to see the Aggies go on an 11-0 run that only took 29 seconds off the clock.
Texas A&M built on that run, took the lead and extended it to 80-69 with 6:03 left, only for Auburn to surge back into the game, cutting the deficit to one with seven seconds left after a 7-0 run in 35 seconds.
Texas A&M had the better of things early, clamping down defensively and building a 20-12 lead after a 3-point play by Agee.
Auburn answered with a 9-0 run that included a four-point play by Hall to briefly take the lead, but Texas A&M would respond with a 6-0 run to surge back ahead 26-21 with 9:47 left in the half.
The Tigers dominated the finish of the first half. Murphy hammered home a put-back dunk to put Auburn back on top 32-31. After A&M tied the score at 35 on two free throws by Lane, Auburn closed the half on a 12-2 run that included another big slam by Murphy to take a 47-37 lead into the locker room.
