San Diego State and Creighton entered Sunday’s Elite Eight matchup aiming for the same thing: the first trip to the Final Four in school history.
After a hard-fought defensive struggle, the No. 5-seed Aztecs came away with a 57-56 win in the South Region final at Louisville, Ky. San Diego State will face East Region champion Florida Atlantic in a national semifinal at NRG Stadium in Houston on Saturday.
The game ended in controversial fashion, after SDSU guard Darrion Trammell drove into the lane and was fouled in the act of shooting by Creighton guard Ryan Nembhard with the score tied and 1.2 seconds left. Trammell hit one of two free throws to account for the winning margin.
Creighton, the No. 6 seed, then attempted a full-court pass in the final second, but to no avail.
Lamont Butler scored a game-high 18 points to lead the Aztecs (31-6), and Trammell added 12 points. Nathan Mensah registered eight points, six rebounds and three blocked shots for SDSU.
Ryan Kalkbrenner scored a team-high 17 points, and Baylor Scheierman added 12 points, nine rebounds and four assists for the Bluejays (24-13). Scheierman had tied the game after intercepting an Aztecs inbounds pass and scoring a layup with 34 seconds left.
Creighton led by as many as eight points in the first half and boasted a 33-28 advantage at halftime. The second half was a back-and-forth rock fight with no easy scoring. Both teams held a four-point lead during the second half but couldn’t pull away.
Creighton shot 40% from the field, slightly better than SDSU’s 37.9%, but the Bluejays also committed 10 turnovers to the Aztecs’ seven. Both teams grabbed 37 rebounds.
