San Diego State muscles past Creighton, makes first Final Four

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Darrion Trammellconverted a go-ahead free throw after he was fouled on a floaterwith 1.2 seconds left, and San Diego State muscled its way into itsfirst Final Four, grinding out a 57-56 victory over Creighton onSunday in the NCAA Tournament’s South Region final.

Lamont Butler scored 18 points and Trammell had 12 for thefifth-seeded Aztecs (31-6), who slowed down the high-scoring,sixth-seeded Bluejays (24-13) and became the first Mountain WestConference team to reach the national semifinals.

The experienced Aztecs, in their sixth season under coach BrianDutcher, will play the surprising East Region champion,ninth-seeded Florida Atlantic, on Saturday in Houston for a spot inthe national title game.

With the game tied at 56-all on San Diego State’s finalpossession, Trammell drove toward the free-throw line, elevated forthe shot and was fouled by Creighton’s Ryan Nembhard. Trammellmissed the first free throw but converted the second.

“I’ve been dreaming this my whole life, grateful to be here andthankful to everyone who believed in me,” Trammell said.

Creighton’s Baylor Scheierman threw the ensuing inbound pass thelength of the floor. San Diego State’s Aguek Arop and Creighton’sArthur Kaluma both jumped for it and the ball deflected out ofbounds. Officials reviewed the play and determined that time hadexpired, and the celebration was on for the Aztecs.

“I wasn’t given an explanation other than there was no time onthe clock,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. “They made no callon the floor but officiating is part of the game and we’re notgonna go there.”

Scheierman had tied the game at 56-all when he stole an inboundspass and converted a layup with 34 seconds remaining.

Ryan Kalkbrenner scored 17 points and Scheierman and Kaluma had12 apiece for the Bluejays, who went 2 of 17 from 3-pointrange.

The Aztecs, who got this far thanks to defense and physicalplay, held the Bluejays to 23 second-half points on 28% shooting asthey won for the 14th time in 15 games. Creighton shot 40%overall.

San Diego State shot 38% but got clutch baskets from NathanMensah, whose jumper gave the Aztecs a 56-54 lead with 1:37 left,and Arop, who made two straight shots for a 54-50 advantage with3:03 remaining.

Creighton, which beat San Diego State in overtime in the firstround of last year’s NCAA Tournament, fell just short of joiningBig East rival UConn in the Final Four.

The teams didn’t appear to share any hard feelings from lastyear’s meeting. They shared a round-trip flight to Hawaii last fallfor the Maui Invitational, and there were no dustups during atight, physical game in which no team led by more than eightpoints.

DIVIDED LOYALTIES

Kaluma played against his brother, San Diego State’s Adam Seiko.Their parents sat a few rows up at midcourt, sitting quietly beforejoining Seiko to celebrate.

BIG PICTURE

Creighton’s offense started well enough as the Bluejays built a33-28 halftime lead and extended their advantage to seven in thesecond half. But Creighton didn’t make a single 3-pointer afterhalftime.

San Diego State proved again that defense matters, especiallysince the Aztecs also scuffled for points. Their experience asdepth showed as Mensah and Arop, who averaged just 6.1 and 4.5points per game respectively, converted the last three baskets.