FORT WORTH, Texas — Trey Alexander transformed a go-ahead, three-point play late in additional time, and Creighton rallied for a 72-69 victory over San Diego State in an NCAA Event opener Thursday night time.
The Bluejays hadn’t led because the first 5 minutes of the sport when Alexander, who additionally had the tying bucket late in regulation, drove proper and was fouled on the layup. The free throw put Creighton forward 71-69 with 1:08 remaining.
Down by two, the Aztecs had the ball with 4.3 second left when Matt Bradley inbounded to Aguek Arop, then ran round him for the handoff. Bradley misplaced management of the ball earlier than getting a shot off, and Creighton secured it with 0.8 to to go.
Alexander scored 18 factors, and Ryan Kalkbrenner had 16 factors and 10 rebounds earlier than leaving with an obvious left leg harm in additional time.
The ninth-seeded Bluejays (23-11) will play Saturday in opposition to the winner between Kansas, the highest seed within the Midwest Area, and Texas Southern. Creighton reached the Candy 16 final yr.
Chad Baker-Mazara scored 15 of his 17 factors within the first half for the Aztecs (23-9), who have been in place for his or her first match win since 2015. Gus Bradley added 15.
Bradley had an opportunity to offer San Diego State the lead on free throws with 6.4 seconds left in regulation when Alex O’Connell fouled him on a drive. Bradley missed the entrance finish of a one-and-one, and Arthur Kaluma dribbled the size of the courtroom earlier than lofting an air ball from the baseline as time expired.
The Aztecs had led by at the very least 5 factors because the center of the primary half when O’Connell hit simply the second 3-pointer of the sport for Creighton to get the Bluejays inside 4 simply contained in the two-minute mark.
After a steal led to a layup from Kalkbrenner, Creighton pressured one other turnover earlier than getting two pictures blocked on the different finish. The Bluejays thought they’d the tying basket on one other steal after the second block, however an official dominated San Diego State known as timeout.
That ruling was reversed on replay, and Alexander hit the tying layup with 11 seconds to go.
Kalkbrenner went down and grimaced after a posting up Arop as they made contact with one another early in additional time. The 7-foot-1 sophomore received up, tried to take a few steps and went again down, holding his left knee. After a number of minutes, Kalkbrenner was helped off the ground with out placing weight on his left leg.
Baker-Mazara had a bucket and a three-point play throughout a 7-2 run that gave the Aztecs their first double-digit lead within the first half, then transformed a four-point play to get the margin again to double digits at 27-15.
