Creighton’s magical run in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament came to a dramatic end in the Elite Eight with a 57-56 loss to 18th-ranked and 5th-seeded San Diego State on Sunday afternoon in the South Regional FinalÂ
Down 56-54 with 34.2 second left in the game, senior Baylor Scheierman intercepted a San Diego State inbounds pass and put in a layup to tied the game at 56-56 with 32.4 seconds remaining.
Creighton committed a non-shooting foul in front court with 6-seconds and San Diego State’s Darrion Trammell took the inbounds pass and was fouled while shooting with 1.2-seconds to go. He missed the first free throw, but made the second for the 57-56 lead.
Scheierman threw a baseball pass the length of the floor and San Diego State’s Aguek Arop and Creighton’s Arthur Kaluma both jumped for it. The ball deflected out of bounds and after a video review, the officials determined that time had expired.
Ryan Kalkbrenner scored 17 points and Scheierman and Arthur Kaluma had 12 apiece for the Bluejays (24-13), who went 2 of 17 from 3-point range, including 0-10 in the second-half.
The Aztecs, who got this far thanks to defense and physical play, held the Bluejays to 23 second-half points on 28% shooting. Creighton shot 40% overall.
Lamont Butler scored 18 points and Trammell had 12 for the fifth-seeded Aztecs (31-6), who became the first Mountain West Conference team to reach the national semifinals.
The experienced Aztecs, in their sixth season under coach Brian Dutcher, will play the surprising East Region champion, ninth-seeded Florida Atlantic, on Saturday in Houston for a spot in the national title game.
NOTES:  Creighton forward Arthur Kaluma is the brother of San Diego State guard Adam Seiko …  Baylor Scheierman had a three-pointer for the 47th straight game dating to last year, and extended his Creighton record streak to 37 in a row. He also became CU’s first player to surpass 300 rebounds in a season since Benoit Benjamin in 1984-85 …  Ryan Kalkbrenner (1,167) moved past Ethan Wragge (1,155) and Dane Watts (1,152) on Creighton’s all-time scoring chart … Every player on the Creighton team has remaining eligibility …