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Auburn wins 43-41, four overtimes against No. 15 playoff prospect Texas A&M

By JOHN ZENOR AP Sports Editor

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — Auburn fans finally had a big win to celebrate. Texas A&M, and maybe the Southeastern Conference, not so much.

Payton Thorne hit KeAndre Lambert-Smith for a two-point play in the fourth overtime to lift the Tigers to a 43-41 victory over No. 15 Texas A&M on Saturday night, capping a brutal day for the playoff contenders SEC playoffs.

The Tigers (5-6, 2-5 SEC) became the last unranked league team of the day to play spoiler. Fans who endured a disappointing season stormed the field and filled it from end zone to end zone, but left the goal posts alone.

“It’s been that kind of year where you fight and you fight and you just keep climbing cliffs,” said Auburn coach Hugh Freeze, who had been under a lot of pressure in his sophomore season. “Our locker room continued to fight and no matter what people said, they just chose to say we are going to fight until the end.”

That’s certainly what it took this time.

With the teams both getting a play to score on the 3, Texas A&M turned to trickery to try to send it to a fifth OT. Receiver Terry Bussey took the direct snap and handed off to quarterback Marcel Reed. Reed’s pass to Amari Daniels was dropped in the end zone.

The Aggies (8-3, 5-2), who had recovered from a 21-0 first-half deficit, suffered the fate of two other SEC playoff hopefuls. Florida had already upset No. 9 Mississippi’s playoff and SEC title hopes with a 24-17 upset, and No. 7 Alabama lost 24-3 at Oklahoma.

The Aggies are still alive in the bid to win their first SEC championship, but are headed to a matchup with No. 3 rival Texas.

“This one is definitely going to hurt, and we’re obviously extremely disappointed,” Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said. “We were in a very good position. Obviously, who we’re playing with and what we’re playing for, there’s still going to be a lot of energy in this stadium next week.

Thorne passed for 301 yards and two touchdowns to Cam Coleman. Jarquez Hunter rushed 28 times for 130 yards and three scores. Coleman had seven catches for 128 yards and Lambert-Smith had two catches for 104.

“My emotions are hard to put into words right now,” Thorne said. “I still climb so high. It was great. I didn’t know if they were going to storm the field or not, and I turned around and a fan hit me in the head. That’s when I was like, “Whoa, that’s pretty cute.” It was great.

Reed passed for 297 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 66 yards. Daniels rushed 27 times for 90 yards and a score.

Auburn and Texas A&M traded touchdowns in the first overtime and field goals in the second. Both teams had incompletions on two-point conversions from the 3-yard line in OT #3.

Then there was the two-point play that proved the difference.

“We’ve been running this game since I’ve been here, since the summer,” said Lambert-Smith, a transfer from Penn State. “We hit him every day in practice against defense. I was discreet so they would call him.

Auburn forced overtime with Ian Vachon’s 29-yard field goal with five seconds left. The 15-game series was interrupted by two false start penalties after a first and goal. Vachon is a backup who got the starting job with Alex McPherson dealing with an illness and freshman Towns McGough struggling.

He came to Auburn after spending two years at Birmingham-Southern before the school closed.

“We take him out of class and here we are with a guy who is hitting some really critical kicks for us,” Freeze said.

Takeaways

Texas A&M: The Aggies gained 296 yards after halftime.

Auburn: Got the biggest win of Coach Freeze’s second season. Auburn had taken double-digit leads in the second half against Oklahoma and Missouri.

To be continued

Texas A&M hosts No. 3 Texas on Saturday, and Auburn is at No. 7 Alabama on the same day.

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The Associated Press contributed to this article