New Mexico State took advantage of 14 Miami turnovers and hit three 3-pointers in the second half just before the shot clock expired to leave the Stan Sheriff Center with a 63-54 victory in a championship bracket semifinal of the Diamond Head Classic. New Mexico State (10-2) will play USC (8-4) in Monday’s 1 p.m. final.

Earlier Saturday, the Trojans defeated Middle Tennessee, 89-84.

Miami (9-1), which had been one of four undefeated teams before Saturday night, will meet the Blue Raiders (8-3) in Monday’s third-place game at 3:30 p.m.

The Aggies had three players in double figures led by senior guard Zach Lofton’s 15 points. Sophomore guard AJ Harris had 10 as did junior guard Sidy N’Dir, the latter hitting both his 3-pointers during a critical stretch in the second half.

It was NMSU’s first win over a Top-10 team since upsetting then-No. 7 UNLV on Jan. 8, 1990. The Aggies also hadn’t defeated a ranked team since 2007 when upsetting Nevada, going 0-18 until Saturday night.

“It’s a defining program win,” NMSU coach Chris Jans said. “We don’t get many opportunities like this to play highly ranked teams on a neutral court. When you have those opportunities you gotta take full advantage of them.

“I couldn’t be more proud of a group of guys than I am right now. They just kept battling and obviously Miami was punching back. Fortunately they weren’t able to surpass us and we held onto the lead.”

The Hurricanes, coming into the game with five players averaging in double digits, had just three on Saturday. Sophomore guard DJ Vasiljevic finished with 15 points, sophomore guard Bruce Brown added 13 — all in the second half — and sophomore guard Dewan Huell 10.

Larranaga had warned his team that NMSU “made difficult shots, don’t be surprised if they do,” he said. “Unfortunately for us, it came at a time when we were starting to make a run.”

The run came too late.

NMSU led 29-25 at half, scoring 12 points off Miami turnovers. The Aggies capped the first 20 minutes in impressive fashion as 6-9 sophomore guard AJ Harris swatted away a 3-point attempt on the right baseline by 5-7 freshman guard Chris Lykes at the buzzer.

It was new territory for the Hurricanes, who had never trailed at intermission this season. On Friday against Hawaii, Miami fell behind in the second half for the first time in 2017 when the Rainbow Warriors took a 36-35 lead with 19:13 left in the game.

Against the Aggies, Miami was down by as much as 52-43 after N’Dir’s 3-pointer as the shot clock expired with 5:57 to go. During NMSU’s 10-1 run, Hurricanes went without a field goal for 7:54; the drought finally ended when Vasiljevic’s layup closed the gap to 49-43.

Brown and Huell helped pull the Hurricanes to within two twice, the last at 54-53 with 85 seconds to go. Lofton hit his lone 3-pointer 28 seconds later and Harris sealed it with a steal and layup to make it 59-53.

“This showed we can be beaten, that we aren’t invincible, that you have to pick it up and play hard every night,” Brown said.