NMSU vs. Auburn: Live updates from the NCAA Tournament

Final Score: NMSU 77, Auburn 78

Second half:

00:00 – Queen misses a three from the corner, and Auburn holds on for a 78-77 win.

00:01 – Brown hits one of three to make it 78-77 Auburn. He misses the third and the ball goes out of bounds off Auburn. NMSU gets it back with a second to win the game!

00:01 – After Auburn makes one of two from the line, Terrell Brown is fouled on a three! He’s got three free throws for the win!

00:07 – JoJo Zamora hits a three to keep the Aggies alive. 76-75 Auburn.

00:12 – J’Von McCormick connects on both shots from the line to make it 76-72 Auburn.

00:12 – Harris makes one of two and it’s 75-73 Auburn with two free throws coming for the Tigers after a quick foul.

00:14 – Auburn gets two from the line to extend the lead to 75-72. Harper then fouls A.J. Harris, and Auburn’s star guard has fouled out.

00:15 – Queen buries a three to make it a 73-72 game and NMSU fouls Okeke to extend the game.

00:41 – McCants makes one of two at the line and then Auburn gets careless again with the basketball. NMSU forces another turnover to get the ball back with a chance to cut it to a one-point or two-point game.

00:49 – Harper slips and falls and is called for traveling to give the ball back to the Aggies.

00:50 – A.J. Harris hits a tough floater to cut it to a 73-68 game. NMSU needs Auburn to go cold from the line here.

1:50 – McCants hits one of two from the line to make it 73-66 Auburn.

2:13 – J’Von McCormick with a huge basket plus the foul for Auburn. 73-65 Tigers.

2:38 – NMSU slowly getting back into the game. Aurrecoechea hits two from the line and it’s 70-65 Tigers.

4:26 – After NMSU cut it to six on a Queen three, it’s Harper from downtown for the Tigers to extend the lead to 70-61.

6:20 – It’s down to single digits again after Ivan Aurrecoechea sinks another left-handed baby hook shot. 67-58 Auburn.

7:25 – McCants with a nice spin move for the easy two, but NMSU is running out of time, down 65-54 late.

8:33 – Jared Harper is starting to feel it for Auburn. He’s got 14 points now after a three, and Auburn takes a 62-50 lead.

9:15 – Trevelin Queen has started to get it going for NMSU in the second half, but they still find themselves down 59-48.

11:05 – Eli Chuha gets a technical foul moments after he was called for a personal foul on a rebound. It’s still 51-43 with free throws coming for Auburn.

12:39 – Queen answers back with a three of his own to bring the Aggies within eight at 51-43.

13:03 – Harper buries a three and NMSU is now down 51-40.

16:15 – Auburn pushed the lead to 12 but the Aggies answer back with an Ivan Aurrecoechea hook shot and two free throws from Trevelin Queen. Auburn leads 45-37.

17:45 – Jared Harper goes right to the rim for a lay-up and the Tigers take a 40-33 lead.

18:53 – Auburn comes out with back-to-back three-pointers. Terrell Brown and Eli Chuha also had baskets in the first minute of the second half, so NMSU now trails 38-33.

20:00 – The Aggies did a great job to hold off Auburn’s charge and will enter the second half down just three points.

First half:

00:05 – Okeke adds two free throws for Auburn, and we have a 32-29 game at the half with the Tigers leading.

00:34 – Brown with a beautiful pass to Eli Chuha down low and this is a 30-29 game, Auburn still up.

1:59 – After the review there’s no change. Common foul. Terrell Brown sinks both free throws and NMSU has this thing down to 30-26.

1:59 – Terrell Brown drives and takes a hard hit while going up. NMSU bench wanted a flagrant foul. Refs are reviewing the play.

3:59 – A steal by Johnny McCants and then he throws it off an Auburn player as he was falling out of bounds. NMSU bench was fired up by that play. McCants has been the star so far.

4:24 – Once again it’s McCants with a huge play for NMSU. Offensive rebound, basket, and the foul to complete a three-point play and cut it to a 28-22 deficit.

4:54 – Okeke hits another triple for the Tigers and we have another timeout with NMSU trailing 28-19. This is danger time for the Aggies if they can’t stop this Auburn run before the half.

7:27 – NMSU having some trouble with Auburn’s length now. The Tigers are getting deflections on passes and forcing NMSU to initiate their offense further outside than they’d like.

8:36 – Timeout on the floor. Some confusion regarding a foul called on Clayton Henry of NMSU on a rebound. Henry perplexed the call went against him when he was thrown to the floor.

9:08 – Malik Dunbar hits two from the line to break a 19-19 tie. Auburn takes the 21-19 edge.

11:50 – McCants catches the lob and throws it down. We’ve reached the under-12 media timeout with NMSU leading 16-13.

12:02 – Jared Harper with a bucket on a strong drive plus a foul. Aggie fans are still loud even though Auburn has made it a 14-13 game.

13:46 – Johnny McCants banks in a three with the shot clock winding down to put NMSU up 12-8. After hitting a halfcourt shot this year to beat Grand Canyon, he’s shown he can make the tough shots.

14:19 – NMSU was up 9-6 but Auburn answers right back to make it 9-8. We could be in for a back-and-forth contest.

14:32 – Anorther lay-in for Harris. This time an Auburn defender caught it when it came off the glass for a goaltend.

15:47 – A.J. Harris with a lay-up to put NMSU up 7-6.

15:50 – First timeout in the game with the Tigers still holding the early 6-5 advantage.

16:36 – Chuma Okeke of Auburn splashes home a three-pointer to give Auburn a 6-5 lead.

17:24 – A.J. Harris with a turnover on a bad pass down low. Aggies lead 4-3 after two and a half minutes.

18:20 – Eli Chuha connects to put NMSU up 4-0 early. Great start for the Aggies.

20:00