Welcome to Birmingham’s Legacy Arena, where No. 9-seeded Auburn (20-12) will play No. 8-seeded Iowa (19-13) in the first round of the 2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

This is the first meeting between the programs. The winner will face either top-seeded Houston (31-3) or No. 16 Northern Kentucky (22-12) Saturday in the second round at Legacy Arena. As expected,, there is an overwhelming amount of blue and orange as Auburn plays less than two hours from campus.

It’s not quite the jungle, but there is a distinctly noticeable amount of Tiger fans in the building. Auburn earned an at-large bid and their 12th all-time NCAA Tournament appearance in 117 seasons of Tiger hoops next to 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2018, 2019, and 2022. It was the program’s fourth berth in the last five tournaments.

We’ll have updates on AL.Com. Follow along.

1st Half

Auburn 31 Iowa 26 53.5 1st Half

Johni Broome got fouled while scoring on a layup but missed the free throw. Iowa’s Filip Rebraca hit two free throws on the following possession.

Auburn 29 Iowa 24 1:40 1st Half

Jaylin Williams has four points. His jumper at the 1:45 mark gave the Tigers a five-point lead.

Auburn 25 Iowa 22 2:40 1st Half

Auburn is shooting 10-28 from the field and 1-7 from three. Iowa is 0-9 on threes.

Auburn 25 Iowa 20 3:18 1st Half

Dylan Cardwell scored on a put back dunk to give Auburn a lead by five.

Auburn 23 Iowa 18 4:42 1st Half

Allen Flanigan ends Auburn’s 3:18-minute scoring drought and stops an Iowa 6-0 run with two free throws. Flanigan drove to the cup and got fouled

Auburn 21 Iowa 14 6:45 1st Half

Iowa is 0-9 from three, and Auburn is 1-6 with Green’s make. Auburn is shooting 9-23 from the field, and Iowa is 6-21 from the field.

Auburn 21 Iowa 12 7:39 1st Half

Auburn is on a 9-0 run capped by three from Wendell Green. The three-pointer was the first for either team.

Auburn 16 Iowa 12 8:47 1st Half

Johni Broome scores his first basket and Auburn leads by four.

Auburn 14 Iowa 12 10:20 1st Half

K.D. Johnson hit a layup to give Auburn a two-point advantage. Auburn is shooting 6-15 from the field and 0-3 from three. Iowa is shooting 5-18 and 0-8 from three.

Auburn 10 Iowa 10 12:42 1st Half

Iowa is two of their last 13 from the field.

Auburn 8 Iowa 6 15:26 1st Half

Johni Broome and Allen Flanigan score on consecutive possessions. Auburn leads by two after trailing by four. Iowa hasn’t scored in nearly three minutes.

Iowa 6 Auburn 4 17:36 1st Half

Kris Murray of Iowa goes one of two from the free-throw line.

Auburn 4 Iowa 2 1st Half 18:42

Zep Jasper scored the first basket for the Tigers. Kris Murray scored a bucket for Iowa at the 19:16 mark. Wendell Green hit two free throws to give Auburn a two point lead