No. 9 Utah State takes on No. 1 Arizona in NCAA Tournament action at Viejas Arena Sunday. Here, the Aggies during their March 14 MWC tourney win over SDSU. (Photo courtesy of San Diego State Athletics)
Despite San Diego State not being in the NCAA Tournament this year, Viejas Arena has been home to some impressive men’s college basketball during March Madness.
That’s set to continue Sunday when four teams – Arizona, Kansas, St. John’s and Utah State – compete in two afternoon games for the right to move on to the Sweet 16.
The main event, perhaps for San Diego State fans, is at 4:50 p.m., when two teams that the Aztecs know well go head-to-head: No. 9 seed Utah State (29-6) and the West Region’s No. 1 seed Arizona (33-2).
Both played and advanced to the second round on Friday. The Wildcats decimated No. 16 seed Long Island 92-58; freshman guard Brayden Burries had 18 points and his teammate Ivan Kharchenkov, a freshman forward, had 14 points and 10 rebounds.
The Sharks were led by junior forward Mason Porter-Brown, who came off the bench to
score 15 points in 28 minutes.
Meanwhile, Utah State advanced to Sunday’s game by upsetting No. 8 seed Villanova (24-
9) by the score of 86-76 on Friday behind stellar performances by junior guard Mason Falslev
(22 points, seven rebounds) and senior guard MJ Collins Jr. (20 points on 7-of-12 shooting).
Burries is averaging 16 points for Arizona, while Collins Jr. is averaging 17.7 points for the
Aggies. His teammate Falslev is averaging 16 points.
Arizona and Utah State did not meet in the regular season, but both played SDSU and won a combined three times. Arizona beat the Aztecs 68-45 on Dec. 20 and Utah State claimed a 71-66 victory on Jan. 31 and followed that with a 73-62 win on March 14 to take the Mountain West tournament title.
Before the Wildcats and Aggies matchup, fourth-seeded Kansas faces off against fifth-
seeded St. John’s, with tip-off scheduled for 2:15 p.m.
Kansas advanced to the second round by defeating the No. 13 seed, Riverside’s California
Baptist University, on Friday. The Jayhawks (24-10) beat the Lancers (25-9) by a score of
68-60, with guard Darryn Peterson chipping in 28 points and forward Bryson Tiller collecting a game-high 10 rebounds.
Earlier in the day, St. John’s (29-6) manhandled the 12th-seeded Northern Iowa Panthers
(23-13), winning 79-53 behind a double-double by senior forward Zuby Ejiofor (14 points, 11
rebounds) and 13 points and six rebounds from guard Bryce Hopkins.