TAMPA, FL (03/21/03) -- The Hawks got the look they wanted. With the overtime clock winding down and Saint Joseph's trailing by two, Jameer Nelson gave up the ball to Delonte West, who found Pat Carroll wide open behind the three-point line. But Carroll, one of the nation's best three-point shooters, offered up an airball, and SJU bowed out of the NCAA Tournament with a 65-63 first-round loss to Auburn Friday afternoon at the St. Pete Times Forum. "If we had the same opportunity again and Pat Carroll had a jumper with two seconds left, we'd take our chances and have him shoot it again," said Hawks coach Phil Martelli after the game. The defeat marked just the first time in its overachieving season that Saint Joseph's had lost back-to-back games. Each team's star, Saint Joseph's (23-8) Nelson and Auburn's Marquis Daniels, rose to the occasion with a gutsy, clutch performance. Nelson's lay-up with 17 seconds remaining in regulation culminated a 15-point second-half comeback and gave the Hawks their first lead since the game's opening two minutes. On the Tigers' (21-11) ensuing possession, Daniels, watching Saint Joseph's ease back into a zone defense, calmly dropped in an improbable three-pointer to put Auburn up two with six seconds to go. Following an SJU timeout, Nelson took the ball the length of the floor and was fouled while driving to the hoop with a half-second left. He nailed his two free throws to send the game into overtime, then sank back-to-back treys to give the Hawks a four-point lead with 2:37 to go. But Daniels and the Tigers wouldn't die. He threw down a dunk to draw Auburn to within a pair, then was fouled while hitting a jumper. His converted free throw with eight seconds left put AU up by one. After Tyrone Barley's offensive foul gave the Tigers the ball back, Derrick Bird split two free throws to set up the final sequence. "When you join any kind of team, you are going to have days when you are going to be disappointed, when you don't get out what you put in," Martelli said. "Unfortunately for us today, we didn't get out what we put in. It's hard to lose like that. I thought we had them on the mat twice." The Hawks needed to come back from 15 down just to get to overtime. Plagued by poor shooting and with no answer for Auburn's strong interior play, Saint Joseph's tallied just 19 points in the first half. But the Hawks turned up their defensive intensity in the second half and found an offensive rhythm that got them back into the game. Nelson, a junior who has gotten looks from NBA scouts, may have played his last game in a Saint Joseph's uniform. He led the Hawks in scoring, tallying 32 points and adding nine rebounds. Coming off the bench, the injured West added 10 points, but needed 13 shots to do it. On the defensive end, Dwayne Jones blocked four shots. As usual, Nelson credited the rest of the Hawks for his superlative day. Several of his buckets came on strong dribble drives against the Tigers' tough frontcourt. "My teammates did a great job finding me and getting me open," he said. "I felt as though I needed to penetrate. If I was going to lose, I was going to go the basket and lose." "Jameer put us on his back," West said. "We saw him ready to go and the guys fell in line. We made a run we should have closed out. I thought we had the game. But that was a good team that beat us today." Daniels carried the Tigers, scoring 25 points and snaring eight boards. He also helped to hold Carroll without a field goal. Marco Killingsworth added 15 and Bird 11 for Auburn. "You just witnessed a great college basketball game," said Tigers head coach Cliff Ellis. "Your heart has to go out to St. Joe's. You have to give them credit for coming back. We beat a very good basketball team." The Hawks will fly home following a season whose success was unexpected by most. An NIT bid would have been a reasonable goal for a team that lost four starters, it was thought. "This has been a great team," Martelli said. "Despite the result here, it's still a great team. We didn't deserve to lose. We lost, but we didn't deserve to lose." --Tom Durso/Saint Joseph's University Communications