San Diego State reaches first-ever Final Four in hard-fought battle with Creighton

They say pressure makes diamonds. That is exactly what San Diego State guard Darrion Trammell now gets to tell people, as he iced a game-winning free throw on Sunday to down Creighton and take his team to the Final Four, 57-56.

It looked all but done for San Diego State. The Aztecs led by two with under one minute to play and just needed to get the ball in safely to help reach the Final Four. Instead, a turnover on the inbounds pass resulted in Creighton tying the game. After getting the ball back, a timeout with just 6.7 seconds left then set up for the finish.

The Aztecs inbounded the ball on the sideline and got a floater for the win. Trammell missed the floater but was fouled while shooting by Ryan Nembhard. Trammell then went to the free throw line for two free shots, where he won the game.

San Diego State heads to the line in a tie game with 1.2 remaining 😮#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/zRP3Hc2KGu

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 26, 2023

The game was truly a tale of two different halves between the two teams. The first half featured plenty of offense, with both teams shooting over 40% from the floor and Creighton even going over 50%. However, shots dried up in the second half and it was a grind-it-out battle to the end because of it.

Trailing by five at the break, the Aztecs actually opened up the second half with a quick 6-0 spurt out of the gates, taking back the lead. At that time, it looked like the second half was going to be nothing but trading buckets. But things slowed down after that, as both teams struggled to get a shot to fall. Neither team hit 40 points until late in the second half and that was when the Bluejays did it nearly seven minutes into the half.

Throughout a lot of the second half, it looked like Creighton was going to be able to edge out San Diego State down the stretch. But the Aztecs clamped up on defense and found Nathan Mensah for a jumper with just 97 seconds to play. That shot gave San Diego State the lead and, eventually, the win.

For Creighton, the name of the game early on was success shooting the ball. The Bluejays shot 53.8% from the floor as a team in the first half of the game. While Creighton has a few key scorers on its roster, the first half was all about balance for the Bluejays. Ryan Kalkbrenner led the way in the first half with 10 points but Baylor Scheierman and Ryan Nembhard each had seven points, while Arthur Kaluma contributed five of his own.

On the other side of the floor, things started out very slow for San Diego State on the offense. The Aztecs needed just shy of nine minutes to even break into the double-digit mark. By then, Creighton had already put up 17 of its own and built a five-point lead at the under 12 media timeout. The Aztecs still managed to shoot 43.3% from the floor in the first half but even then trailed at the break.

Despite falling behind by as many as eight points with just shy of eight minutes to play, San Diego State did not give into Creighton and fall out of it. The Aztecs continued to fight throughout the half and even tied it at one point thanks to a 10-2 run before they gave up more Creighton shots and trailed 33-28 at halftime.

Now with this win under its belt, San Diego State takes the crown in the South Region. The Aztecs now advance to the Final Four this coming Saturday and will square off with Florida Atlantic for a spot in the national championship game.