Thrilling opener for the men's basketball team tonight. Here's tomorrow's lead:

AUBURN, Ala. — It was ugly at times, but if the Auburn men's basketball team gets back to the cusp of the NCAA tournament this season, its 69-65 win against Niagara on Friday night will look pretty in hindsight.

DeWayne Reed converted a three-point play to give Auburn a late lead and Lucas Hargrove made a controversial game-saving block with 2.8 seconds remaining to help the Tigers pull out a thrilling win in the final season opener of the 42-year-old Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.

The Tigers (1-0) scored the game's last 11 points, erasing a seven-point deficit in the final two minutes.

Some other notes from the game ...

• Clutch game for Reed, who was particularly un-clutch at the end of the Baylor NIT semifinal last year, when he missed two free throws in the final seconds of the Tigers' season-ending loss. He scored 24 points, including eight in the final two minutes. His three-point play with 12.8 seconds left gave Auburn a one-point lead.

• "Horrendous" was the word head coach Jeff Lebo used for Hargrove's performance, although he had a big final minute. He wasn't credited with an official block on a layup by Niagara's Rob Garrison in the final seconds, but it sure looked like one. It also looked like goal-tending from the Purple Eagles' perspective. The bench went into hysterics by the non-call.

• Although he finished with three points on 1-of-6 shooting and committed three fouls, Hargrove had a phantom block, a rebound, a three free throws and a key steal in the final two seconds of the game.
  
  
• Tay Waller, the team's leading 3-point shooter, didn't dress because of a quad injury. It's an injury that's bothered him of late. Lebo didn't say if he'll miss any more games.

• Auburn went 4-for-22 from 3-point range in Waller's absence.

• Frankie Sullivan was the only other Auburn player to reach double figures, scoring 10 points on 2-for-11 shooting. he also had seven rebounds, though.

• Anthony Nelson scored 17 points and Bilal Benn and Demetrius Williamson both added 16 for the Purple Eagles, who played most of the game without first-team All-MAAC guard Tyrone Lewis, who rolled an ankle midway through the first half and didn't return.

• The win might prove crucial come March. Auburn narrowly missed out on last year's NCAA tournament despite winning 24 games. The biggest shortcoming on the Tigers' résumé was a lack of quality non-conference wins. Niagara won 26 games last year, had an RPI of 58 and is picked to finish second in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference behind Siena this season, making the win more impressive than anything Auburn did out of the SEC last season.