WHAT AN EXCITING GAME! The #5 Auburn Tigers and #12 New Mexico State Aggies truly showed how crazy March Madness can be. Auburn opened the game as a 6 point favorite with the over/under at 146. At the beginning, both teams kept the game close with the score being 32-29 Auburn’s lead at the end of the half. Auburn came out in the second half shooting the way they did in the SEC tournament. They went up 11 with 4:30 left in the game and to many, it seemed as though the more talented team had taken over. But fear not, the Aggies wouldn’t give up because anything can happen in the tournament. They started cutting the lead and getting stops on defense. Auburn was struggling and Bruce Pearl was heated on the sideline. The Aggies cut the lead all the way down to a 1 point game making it 77-76 with 8 second left. Samir Doughty got fouled on the inbounds and made 1 of 2 free throws putting auburn up by 2. The aggies got the ball in and passed up a wide open layup to go for the game winning three. Terrell Brown got hit while he was shooting for the game winning three, so he was rewarded with 3 free throws. Brown was 7-8 from the line before shooting for the chance to tie and take the lead. He missed the first free throw, made the second, and with the chance to tie the game missed the third. But, due to the craziness of March Madness the aggies were gifted the ball when Auburn couldn’t grab the rebound on the missed free throw. With 1.7 seconds left, the aggies got a wide open last second shot. Trevelin Queen took the shot and missed, sending Auburn to the next round. The leading scorers of the game were Johnny McCants who had 16 points for the Aggies and Jared Harper who had 17 for the Tigers. This was the first wild finish in the tournament and hopefully we will get to see more of these types of games. Next up for Auburn is #4 Kansas on Saturday.
