AUBURN, ALA. -- One team remains undefeated at Auburn after Wednesday night’s matchup between the No. 17 Tigers and Texas A&M. It’s just not the home team.
The Aggies became the first team this season to beat Auburn at home, using a second half surge spurred by technical fouls against Tigers head coach Bruce Pearl and his son, assistant Steven Pearl, to win 78-75. A&M is now 5-0 at Auburn Arena since entering the SEC in 2012.
The Aggies (15-14, 9-8 SEC) were led by 19 points from center Josh Nebo and 14 each from forward Savion Flagg and guards Jay Jay Chandler and Wendell Mitchell. Mitchell’s 3-point shot with 1:13 left -- his only 3-point make of the game -- gave the Aggies a 75-67 lead. A&M then withstood a late Auburn surge to hold off Auburn (24-6, 11-6 SEC), who came into the game with the No. 2 seed and a double bye in the SEC Tournament.
The Aggies trailed 7-0 and 12-1 out of the gate, then caught fire to take the lead 17-15 with 9:31 to go in the first half. After Auburn tied the game at 22 with 4:14 left in the opening stanza, the Aggies went on an 11-4 run to take a 33-26 lead into halftime.
Behind Samir Doughty (25 points) Auburn scored the first 9 points of the second half in less than three minutes to take a 35-33, and the lead see-sawed back and forth until Pearl was slapped with a technical foul with 15:46 left. After Mitchell made two free throws and was immediately put back at the line for two more -- both made -- after the second technical call, A&M was up 41-38. It was a lead they would not relinquish, as Nebo caught fire. After scoring only 2 points in the second half, Nebo made his final eight shots from the field before fouling out with 1:42 left.
The Aggies would only make one more shot from the field, but it was Mitchell’s huge 3 from the top of the key. Flagg would hit one of two free throws with 47 seconds left, then Mitchell went one of two from the stripe with 17 seconds left to put A&M up 77-72. After J’Von McCormick hit a 3-pointer with 9 seconds left to cut the lead to two, Flagg hit another free throw to give the Aggies a 3-point lead with 7 seconds to go. Auburn didn’t get off another shot before the final buzzer, allowing the Aggies to snag their biggest win of the season to date and their first win over a ranked team since they beat -- you guessed it -- No. 8 Auburn in 2017.
Notes
Nebo was 9-12 from the field and perfect after halftime. His 19 points were 2 short of his career high.
Mitchell was only 3-11 from the field, but 7-8 from the line and added a team-high 7 rebounds and 4 assists.
With his 28 minutes off the bench, Chandler played more than the rest of the reserves combined while going 5-12 from the floor (2-7 from 3). He added two steals, one of which concluded with a thunderous dunk.
The Aggies, who started the season as one of the nation’s worst shooting teams, finished the game 28-59 (47.5%) from the field and 8-21 (38.1%) from 3. Both were better than Auburn’s 43.1% (25-58) and 33.3% (10-30), respectively.
A&M nearly let the game slip away at the free throw line. A&M shot only 63.6% (14-22), while Auburn hit 83.3% (15-18) of their efforts from the charity stripe.
