San Diego State survives after New Mexico State obliges OT
And to assume, we've only just begun.
"March Chaos" morphed into "The Longest Day" on Thursday, after San Diego State and New Mexico State visited overtime, marking the document 4th game of the day to extend the extra 5 minutes.
The fourth-seeded Aztecs took out a 73-69 victory after letting a 14-point lead slip away in law.
"We didn't want to enter overtime, however we delighted in once we got there that we located a means to get a succeed," train Steve Fisher stated.
Xavier Thames scored the first basket of overtime and made three of four free throws at the end of the extra session to help San Diego State (30-4) advancement to Sunday's third-round West Region game versus North Dakota State. Earlier in the day, the Bison beat Oklahoma 80-75-- in overtime, naturally.
Thames had 23 factors for the Aztecs, which really did not trail once all evening yet still needed 45 mins to get the job done.
"All that matters is we obtained the succeed," Thames claimed.
Holding a five-point lead with 32 secs left, the Aztecs allow Renaldo Dixon rating to make it 60-57 with 16.9 remaining.
An inbounds pass and a couple of free throws were all they should cover things up.
Not quite that very easy, especially not on today.
Thames mishandled the inbounds pass, and after a timeout, the 13th-seeded Aggies (26-10) worked the round to Kevin Aronis, which missed his very first shot however got it back after an offensive rebound and made the 3-pointer to connect it. Thames had a possibility to gain yet his go rimmed out, and off to overtime they went.
"It's the competition, so everyone is going to bring their ideal hit," San Diego State's Dwayne Polee claimed. "They pierced us in the mouth in the 2nd fifty percent but we took it to OT and battled even harder.".
The Aztecs signed up with North Dakota State, UConn and Saint Louis as overtime winners on the initial complete day of the tournament. The last time there had been as many as 3 overtimes in one day was March 20, 2010. If there's a single overtime in any of Friday's 16 video games, the document for the most OT video games in the round of 64 will certainly be damaged.
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This one really did not appear to be headed this way.
San Diego State built a 14-point lead early in the second half, in big component because New Mexico State's huge man, 7-foot-5, 355-pound Sim Bhullar, spent the majority of the initial one-half on the bench. With Bhullar back in the video game, the Aggies' offense began clicking once more. He and Daniel Mullings linked repetitively in damaging the deficit to 44-42 after a 22-10 run.
"It was everything I expected," Aztecs forward Skylar Spencer shared of the obstacle of covering Bhullar. "But you do not really get a preference of it unless you play against him.".
Thames made three straight baskets for the Aztecs to create the lead back to six. It looked as though they would grind the game far from there.
Rather, they needed to work overtime, and San Diego State started pulling away when Bhullar fouled out with 3:21 left in the additional session. The big guy doned with 14 factors and 7 rebounds, and Mullings had 18 for the Aggies.
"It's saddening is exactly what it is," New Mexico State instructor Marvin Menzies mentioned. "To be able to fight that tough the second fifty percent and not overcome the hump in overtime. I assumed we formulated some actually great stuff and we merely missed out on some right at the basket.".
The night really did not finish with overtime for New Mexico State. The Aggies were readied to travel house late Thursday, and SDSU's Fisher showed temper concerning the setups in his postgame news conference.
"It's 10 mins after 11 [p.m.]," he shared. "It's disgraceful. For the billions of dollars that we have here, for [the NCAA] not to find a means to accommodate these kids, these student-athletes, you cannot tell me they couldn't find charter airplanes, and that's just what they told me.
"We can mention we want to do all these things for the perk of the student-athletes, however you play a game like we did today and you reach the airport terminal at 1 in the morning? ... I 'd like to go from the top up administratively, have them at a site and state, 'You're gonna use residence with the losing group. You're gonna ride house with the shedding group. And see just what it resembles to obtain home at 5 in the morning.' It should not occur.".
The Aztecs were happy to not be making the journey house after powering past New Mexico State.
While San Diego State may not have the height-- 6-8 Josh Davis resembled a youngster trying to secure Bhullar when he uploaded up-- the Aztecs do have some reach. They shut out 9 shots-- seven greater than Bhullar-- and had eight steals. Led by 14 boards from Davis, San Diego State finished with 40 rebounds, just one fewer than the Aggies.
Yet one more classification where the groups were nearly even.
"The battle's never ever over 'til the clock attacks zero," Bhullar stated. "So we just appeared in the 2nd one-half and played our hearts out and took it into overtime.".
A fitting means to end the day.
