TUSCALOOSA – Auburn had seen almost half of its rotation foul out and a 15-point lead evaporate, coughed the ball up 23 times and went more than 9 minutes in the second half without a basket.

And yet, after a Tony Neysmith runner banked home with 13.0 seconds to go, the Tigers found themselves tied with rival Alabama on Wednesday night.

The Tide inbounded the ball with 7.6 seconds left. Tony Mitchell knifed through the lane – avoiding Josh Wallace, who was trying to take a charge – and his layup clanged off the iron.

Right to JaMychal Green, who tipped the ball in with 0.3 seconds left to give Alabama a 51-49 win, avoid a severe blow to its NCAA Tournament hopes and send 15,383 fans into a frenzy at Coleman Coliseum.

“Keep in front. Make them shoot a jump shot. Not give them a layup,” Tigers coach Tony Barbee said of the team’s defensive plan on the last play. “That’s what we did. We broke down. They made a great play.”

Allen Payne’s desperation heave from under the Tide’s basket actually banked off the backboard and off the rim. But by the time it left his hand, the horn had sounded, Green and his teammates were celebrating at midcourt and TV cameras had joined the game’s participants.

Auburn (9-18, 2-11 SEC) proved the better team in an exceedingly ugly first half for the homestanding Tide (19-8, 11-2), one in which they committed 12 turnovers and shot 22.7 percent from the field.

After two Andrew Steele free throws knotted the game at 14 with 8:49 to go in the first half, Auburn ripped off a 17-2 run to take a 31-16 lead on a Payne 3-pointer with 2:57 to go.

Alabama used a 9-0 run to close to 31-25 at the half, but the Tigers went on another spurt, hitting the high-water mark at 41-29 with an Earnest Ross 3-pointer with 11:53 left.

Auburn’s offensive stagnancy – and a healthy dose of foul trouble – allowed the Tide back into the game.

Rob Chubb fouled out tangling with Green in the post with 9:18 to go, a call that drew Barbee’s third technical foul in as many games. Ross followed Chubb at the 4:08 mark. Kenny Gabriel joined them at 2:55, and Adrian Forbes followed 43 seconds later.

Alabama knocked down 14-of-26 free throws in the second half and 27-of-40 on the game, complementing an 11-for-42 (26.2 percent) performance from the field.

“There’s a big difference between playing hard and fouling,” Barbee said. “They were all fouls. We put them to the foul line way too much when they were struggling to score.”

The Tigers’ foul trouble – not to mention only 4 points in more than 10 minutes – left them in a 47-45 hole with 1:38 to go and five players on the court who were not exactly used to taking over games with their offense.

But Josh Langford blocked a Chris Hines dunk at the rim and Wallace made two free throws at the other end to knot the game at 47.

Green and Trevor Releford each hit 1-of-2 free throws on the Tide’s next two trips to put them up 2, but Neysmith’s runner connected to tie it again.

Auburn just didn’t have an answer for Green crashing the boards right before the buzzer.

“We fought to the end, and that’s all we can do,” Ross said. “I wish we could’ve pulled it out, but sometimes it happens like that.”

Green scored a game-high 17 points and pulled down only four rebounds, but the last one was huge.

The Tide turned the ball over 19 times to go with their season lows in field goals (11) and field goal percentage (26.2) and their SEC low in points (51).

“I’m looking at the stat sheet and trying to figure it out,” Tide coach Anthony Grant said of his team’s win. “Because when you look at the numbers, it equates to a loss for us. We found ways to chip away and once we got it under 5, the energy kicked in, the crowd was really into it, and it carried us through.”

Ross was the only Auburn player to reach double figures with 10 points, and Gabriel and Forbes scored 7 as the Tigers reversed a recent trend of blowout losses by taking the regular season SEC West champion to the wire.

That served as scant consolation after the loss.

“I’m proud of my kids, the way they fought,” Barbee said. “I told them, ‘As well as we played, this loss is on me,’ not on them. Because I’ve done an awful job of teaching them how to win.”

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