When the crowd stood for the final 40 seconds at Auburn Arena on Sunday, it must have felt like 40 minutes.

After overcoming a 17-point first-half deficit, then leading by as many as 12 in the second half, the Auburn basketball team had to hold its breath — and Middle Tennessee’s offense — in the final 40 ticks to squeak out its first win of the season, 68-66.

It took four games, but the Tigers finally won their first game in front of their home crowd in the brand new Auburn Arena.

“We had to show the crowd we could at least give them one,” said sophomore guard Earnest Ross, who led the Tigers with a career-high 22 points.

Down by 6 with 24.2 seconds left, Middle Tennessee’s James Washington hit a 3-pointer to make it a one-possession game. The Blue Raiders (1-2) then got the ball back and had a chance to send it into overtime with 10.9 seconds to play.

However, MTSU couldn’t make either of its 3-point attempts as the clock wound down. A foul by Auburn on a rebound attempt gave the Blue Raiders a free-throw situation with 0.9 left.
Trevor Ottley made his first attempt, cutting it to 2, and intentionally missed the second in hopes that MTSU would be able to get a tip-in for the tie. It couldn’t.

“It feels good,” said Tony Barbee, who earned his first win as Auburn’s head coach. “But it’s like I told the guys, I got back in the locker room and they’re going crazy. I just told them, ‘Guess what, remember this feeling, because winning feels a whole lot better than losing.’”

MTSU started the game on a 7-0 run and jumped out to a 32-15 lead 12 minutes into the first half.

But just as quickly as they started, the Blue Raiders went completely cold from the floor in the final 7:09 of the opening period.

In fact, MTSU hit just one field goal in that time span before the break, as Auburn (1-3) capitalized with a 16-2 run to end the half, cutting the lead to 34-31.

The Blue Raiders’ shooting woes didn’t get much better coming out of the locker room, as they struggled to make anything.

Auburn opened the final period on a 13-3 run to jump out in front for the first time in the game. During a 13-minute stretch between the end of the first half and beginning of the second, MTSU scored just 3 points.

A dunk by Adrian Forbes with 17:19 left in the second half highlighted the Tigers’ extensive 28-3 run.

Auburn extended that into a 53-41 lead with 11:01 remaining. But the Tigers couldn’t hold it, as MTSU went on a 19-7 run to tie the game at 60 with 3:50 left, setting up the nail-biting finish.

“This is going to be a long season. This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint,” Barbee said. “This is going to be a season of learning. And it’s going to be, when you have a young team and an inexperienced team like I have, there’s going to be some ups and there’s going to be some down. But everyday, as long as we keep taking positive steps forward, individually and collectively as a group, then I’ll be happy with whatever the outcome is.”

Auburn sophomore center Rob Chubb was second on the team in scoring, finishing with 13 points, while Kenny Gabriel added 11 rebounds to go with his 6 points. Allen Payne chipped in with 9 points.

MTSU was led by Washington’s game-high 25 points, while JT Sulton scored 17.

The Tigers outrebounded the Blue Raiders, 40-27.

After finishing the four-team Global Hoops Sports Showcase event 1-2, Auburn will host Jacksonville at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

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