KeShawn Murphy thought he had hit a ridiculous deep buzzer-beater to lift Auburn past Texas A&M on Tuesday night.
He was just barely too late.
Murphy, with Auburn down by two points, caught an inbounds pass with 0.6 seconds left on the clock, turned and fired from just inside half court. His shot was perfect, and sparked a massive celebration at Neville Arena. The shot looked like it was one of the first truly great buzzer-beaters of the college basketball season, several months before March even hit.
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Unfortunately for Murphy and the Tigers, a review from the officials determined that the release was a little too late. Murphy didn’t get the shot off in time, and the points were called off. That gave the Aggies the 90-88 road win, and left them celebrating in front of a stunned arena.
“I don’t have a clear understanding still,” Auburn head coach Steven Pearl said, via WSFA12’s Rosie Langello-Hodgens. “I still gotta gather more information and get an understanding as to what their determination was. … Just from the angles that I saw, it looked like the ball was out of his hands on the red light, on the scoreboard that we were looking at. But I would imagine that they had a different angle they were looking at to determine the ball wasn’t out of his hands.”
Pearl had a conversation with the SEC after the game, and he was seen meeting with athletic director John Cohen and officials on the court well after speaking with reporters.
Texas A&M (12-3) rallied from a 16-point hole to grab the win over Auburn, a victory that lifted the Aggies to 2-0 in SEC play. Pop Isaacs led the way with 21 points off the bench after he shot 7-of-12 from the field, and Jacari Lane added 17 points and seven rebounds. The Aggies have won five straight entering Saturday’s game with Oklahoma.
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Keyshawn Hall led Auburn with 32 points and 12 rebounds in the loss, and Kevin Overton finished with 16 points. Murphy had eight points and eight rebounds.
The Tigers have lost four of their last six, and fell to 9-6 on the season, which is the first under Pearl, who took over for his father, longtime coach Bruce Pearl, this past offseason. They’ll head into Saturday’s game with No. 15 Arkansas without an SEC win looking to avoid what would be the program’s first three-game losing skid since 2023.