Observations: Texas A&M 90, Auburn 88

Auburn hit a second unreal buzzer-beater in four days — only for it to get waved off. But the Tigers shouldn't have been in that spot anyway.

AUBURN — The focus will be on the tenth of a second that seemed to separate an unbelievable buzzer-beating win and a controversially heartbreaking loss.

Much will be made on the officiating decision — the replays, the angles, the process — that took away KeShawn Murphy’s game-winning 3-pointer from a step inside half-court and gave a 90-88 win, instead, to Texas A&M.

There will be discussions and debates on what did or didn’t happen in that millisecond. Steven Pearl even said he didn’t have “a clear understanding” of the decision from the SEC and its officials when he came to his postgame presser.

But he did have a good grasp on one thing.

“We can only look within and only just be accountable for our mistakes against their pressure,” Pearl said. “That ultimately was what the difference in the game was.”

Instead of the chaotic final possession, Pearl wanted to focus on a span of time that was still brief but had a larger impact on the game: Three seconds.

Auburn led Texas A&M by 16 points with 13:29 to play when the visitors got a second-chance layup to fall and immediately jumped into first-year head coach Bucky McMillan’s trademark full-court press.

Sebastian Williams-Adams turned the ball over on the inbounds pass. Texas A&M immediately hit a 3.

Keyshawn Hall turned the ball over seconds later. Texas A&M immediately hit a 3.

After Pearl called a 30-second timeout, Hall turned it over again. Texas A&M got a 3-point play, finishing through a Hall foul.

Auburn saw its lead go from 16 points to two possessions before it even got to cross half-court again. But the damage was far from done, as Texas A&M would soon go on a 22-4 run to take an 11-point lead of its own.

And Pearl pointed back to those three turnovers.

“I asked the guys, how many seconds does it take to turn the ball over?” Pearl said. “A second, just to make it simple. We let three seconds impact eight minutes of basketball. Think about that. You let three seconds impact eight minutes of basketball.

“Come on, man. You can't do that.”

Auburn would find a way to give itself an improbable chance to win for the second time in four days. After cutting a 12-point lead down to five and seeing a contested deep 3 go in for Texas A&M, Auburn was down eight with a minute to play.

The Tigers whittled that all the way down to a single possession again, taking advantage of the Aggies’ mistakes and missed free throws.

Then the wildest two seconds of game time you may ever see happened.

Up by two, Pop Isaacs — who hit three 3-pointers in a little over a minute earlier in the half — missed his first free throw.

After Auburn’s final timeout, Texas A&M decided to intentionally miss the second free throw, hoping to force a nearly full-court shot instead of one off an in-bounds play.

It wasn’t clear in realtime if Isaacs’ attempt even hit the rim. If it didn’t, Auburn would get a baseline in-bounds play. If it did, the ball would be live as soon as it was touched by a player. The officials let the ball go in play before whistling it dead and reviewing it.

“We had this happen with Cinmeon Bowers our first year, where we were trying to miss intentionally, and he throws it off the backboard,” Pearl said. “We told him, ‘Just hit the rim.’ They ended up blowing it dead right then and there. I don’t know. I’m not an official, and I would never be an official because those guys have an impossible job.

“But from looking at it, if it’s not clear a ball hits the rim on a free throw, my determination is you’d blow it dead right then and there just to look. But that didn’t happen. … That’s just some questions I’ve got to ask.”