Nothing is easy in the NCAA tournament. That’s what gains mean so much and hurt losses so deeply.
San Diego State suffered a monster collapse, dropping a double-digit lead away in a 72-69 loss to Creighton in the 1st round of Midwest Regional in Fort Worth, TX.
The Aztecs took the lead with 15:02 in the first half. They held it for the next 34 minutes and 51 seconds, and still lost.
Trey Pulliam scored a 3-point lead to give the Aztecs a 9-point lead with 3:51 and it looked as if they would get a shot at Kansas in the second round. The Blue Jays scored nine straight points and Trey Alexander buried a jumper to play it 62-62 with 11 seconds to force overtime.
In the OT, the Aztecs took a 3-point lead just to watch as Alexander burned them once again, hit a baseline jumper and attacked the basket to score and be fouled. The 3-point game gave Creighton a 71-69 lead and SDSU’s inability to score condemned it. The Aztecs missed three shots, two of them layups, and turned the ball over twice in the stretch and just as their season was over.
In the end, another solid game overcame Sophomore Chad Baker-Mazara, who had a team-high 17 points. Matt Bradley scored 16 points and fellow senior Pulliam scored 14 in their last appearances in an SDSU uniform.
The Aztecs have not won an NCAA tournament game in eight years (even though the 30-2 team would have made a deep run in 2020 if the tournament had not been canceled due to the pandemic).
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