Auburn righted the ship after a blowout loss to Xavier with an 83-78 win over New Mexico in the Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii on Tuesday.
Kareem Canty led the Tigers with 27 points and seven assists, and T.J. Dunans added 20 points and a pair of assists.
Auburn fell behind early, but used a 20-8 run in the first half to pull ahead. The Tigers led 41-36 at halftime, but the Lobos came out of the break on fire: New Mexico reclaimed the lead and stretched it to as much as six points, but Auburn was able to knot the score at 66 with just under seven minutes remaining.
From that point on, only Canty, Dunans and Cinmeon Bowers—who posted yet another double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds—scored for the Tigers, who outscored the Lobos 17-11 over the final few minutes, capped by a Dunans-to-Bowers alley-oop that stretched Auburn's lead to five with 15 seconds to go.
Auburn improves to 6-3 with the win and will play either Harvard or BYU on Wednesday.
New Mexico was led by Elijah Brown and Neal Cullen, who together contributed 54 of the Lobos' 78 points.
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