Auburn tops New Mexico 83-78 in Hawaii

Roderick Bobbitt, Hawai’i: Bobbitt shot extremely well in scoring 30 points in a win over Auburn, shooting 8-for-13 from the field and 8-for-8 from the foul line.

“When Horace Spencer is out there defensively, we go on our runs because he cleans up a lot of mistakes that we make back there”, Pearl said.

The Tigers are 5-3 so far on the year and are coached by Bruce Pearl – which means they have a long, athletic team that will run the floor.

Auburn forward Tyler Harris (12) shoots a layup while playing against Hawaii in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game at the Diamond Head Classic, Friday, Dec. 25, 2015, in Honolulu. His final 3-pointer, with 29 seconds left, turned a one-point lead into a four-point advantage. Auburn is coming off its worst defeat of the season, an 85-61 loss Saturday against No. 6 Xavier, the same day New Mexico lost by a point to visiting Rice after a timeout was called with the score tied and 0.1 seconds on the clock, though the Lobos didn’t have any left, resulting in a technical foul and the game-winning free throw.

Auburn improved to 6-3 while New Mexico fell to 7-4. His previous low mark this season was 11 points against Coastal Carolina on December 2.

It was the first meeting between the schools.

It was Hawaii’s first win in the series. “We’ve played 10 games now and he’s played really well in six of them and we’ve won them all and in the four games he didn’t play great, we didn’t win”. After getting off to a good start to the season the Lobos once again struggled defensively and with turnovers, and they have many kinks to work out ahead of their Mountain West opener Wednesday night. “When we don’t, our system is not as effective”, Pearl said.

Chase Fischer, BYU: One game after hitting nine three-pointers Fischer hit four more, scoring 26 points in the Cougars’ win over Northern Iowa. Harris added 15 points. The Tigers already had an exceptional replacement in the starting lineup in Kareem Canty, a transfer from Marshall who has exceeded his 20-point scoring average in each of the last three games. Bowers grabbed 12 rebounds. He finished with nine rebounds to go with 17 points Tuesday.

Harvard will play the Oklahoma-Hawaii victor in Friday’s championship game.