No team in the nation won more games than College of Charleston. None of the Cougars 31 victories, however, came against a team that defends like San Diego State.
The Aztecs, the 5th seed in the South Region, rode their trademark D to a 63-57 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, getting head coach Brian Dutcher his first March Madness win. It's also SDSU's first post-season win since 2015 when they beat St. John's under Steve Fisher.
During the regular season the Cougars averaged 80 points a game but were held to 32% shooting by a typically smothering Aztecs defense.
Offensively,, as they have all year long, SDSU got their points by committee. Senior forward Matt Bradley led the way with 17 but was the only Aztec to reach double figures. Keshad Johnson, Aguek Arop, and Jaedon LeDee tied for 2nd-most with eight. All nine players who got on the floor scored.
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The Aztecs started slowly on offense, falling behind 19-13 in the 1st half. They didn't let the Cougars pull too far away, thought, and methodically worked their way back to take a 32-29 lead at halftime. They worked that lead up to seven early in the 2nd half on a Lamont Butler layup. If there's one thing the Aztecs have had a problem with this year it's putting teams away.
Bradley hit a layup to make it 51-46 with seven minutes to play. SDSU only scored two points over the next four and a half minutes and let Charleston tie it again at 53-53 on an Ante Brzovic layup. The upset bid was cut off by a pair of lefties. Bradley hit a layup to take the lead back and Micah Parrish dropped a 3-pointer to make it 58-53. The Aztecs hit six of eight free throw tries down the stretch to put it to bed.
This was a big win for the Mountain West Conference, too. Nevada and Utah State had already lost this year, running the conference's tournament losing streak to 11 games. Boise State, a 10th seed in the West Region, can turn that into a 2-game winning streak on Thursday evening when they face Northwestern.
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Up next for the Aztecs is, somewhat surprisingly, Furman. The 13th-seeded Paladins took down ACC power Virginia 68-67 in the first major upset of this year's tournament. A Paladin, by the way, is a reference to a group of legendary knights from Charlemagne's court in the 8th century. #TheMoreYouKnow
