San Diego State Upsets Top Seed New Mexico 72-69 To Advance To Title Game

San Diego State looks to be off the bubble and squarely in the NCAA tournament after upsetting top seed New Mexico, 72-69. Even if the Aztecs do not win the tournament title tomorrow night against either BYU or UNLV they appear to be in the tournament. New Mexico was ranked in the top 10 in the human polls as well as the all important RPI, so this was a high quality win for San Diego State. The Aztecs ran out to an early 18-7 lead over New Mexico, and the game looked to be a blowout in favor of the Aztecs. Then New Mexico woke up to go on a 32-10 run to end the half with a one point lead.

The second half was a back and forth game with the big players stepping up on each side. Las Vegas native and San Diego State forward Billy White had a career high with 28 points to lead all scorers. Then there was freshman of the year Kawhi Leonard who stepped up big to finish with 15 points and 12 rebounds. The game looked to be over when the Aztecs were up 62-55 with just under seven minutes left in the second half, but then New Mexico’s Darrington Hobson and Ramon Martinez stepped it up to have a chance to win this game.

The officials were having problems with the clock tonight as San Diego State had a lay up count when the shot clock was clearly at zero and was not reversed when the officials took the time to review the monitors. That made basket could have been the difference in this game. Also, a shot clock violation against San Diego State with 11 seconds was not called and the clock ran down to just under eight seconds and once again the officials went to the replay monitor and did not add time back on the clock. Those officiating errors must be taken care of for the other semifinal and tomorrow nights final.