Disappointed about being left out of the NCAA Tournament field, Saint Mary's was nearly knocked out of the NIT field in the first round.

Joe Rahon broke a tie by sinking two foul shots with 1.5 seconds remaining, and the second-seeded Gaels pulled out a 58-56 win over seventh-seeded New Mexico State on Tuesday at Moraga, Calif.

Saint Mary's advances to a second-round home game against either third-seeded Georgia or sixth-seeded Belmont, who meet Wednesday.

Aggies center Tanveer Bhullar made a layup with 2.1 seconds to go -- his only basket of the game -- to tie the score.

The Gaels led 56-46 with just over four minutes remaining, but the Aggies scored the next 10 points, six of them on layups by Ian Baker.

Rahon led the Gaels (28-5) with 14 points, and he added seven rebounds. Saint Mary's forward Dane Pineau had 13 points and seven boards, and guard Emmett Naar added 12 points and six assists.

New Mexico State (23-11) got 19 points and 14 rebounds from forward Pascal Siakam. Baker had 13 points and six assists.

The Gaels held a decided shooting advantage, sinking 51.1 percent of their field-goal attempts to 35.9 percent for the Aggies.