NBC 7’s Todd Strain reports from a Mira Mesa watch party jam-packed with happy Aztecs fans.
The pace. The back-and-forth. The final minutes playing out for what seemed like eternity. Everything about San Diego State's 71-64 win over top-seeded Alabama was familiar to Aztecs fans, but the win takes the program to new territory.
They're in the Elite 8 now, three wins away from a National Championship. No Mountain West Conference school has ever made it this far.
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It didn't come without drama, though. A Jaedon Lee missed free throw with 55 seconds left led to an Alabama layup that closed the gap to two points. A quick foul put Matt Bradley, the season's leading scorer who had only registered 4 points on 2 of 9 shooting to that point, on the line and he sank two to push the lead back to four with 34 seconds left.
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From there, Bama played the hack-a-Tec game, and a series of trips to the charity stripe put SDSU up for good.
Darrion Trammell took over in the second half, sparking a mini-run that helped the Aztecs maintain a tight lead in the final minutes. He finished the game with 21 of SDSU's 71 points. Big man Jaedon LeDee added 12 of his own and a six-pack of boards.
The Aztecs defense held Alabama to 34% shooting from the field, including a down-home 13% (3 of 23) from deep.
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