College Basketball

Sean Miller joins brother in Elite 8 as Arizona tops SDSU

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Shortly before Arizona took the Honda Center floor to play its Sweet 16 game against San Diego State Thursday night, Sean Miller’s younger brother, Archie, had just coached NCAA Tournament darling Dayton into the Elite Eight with an upset victory over Stanford in the South Region semifinal at Memphis.

For much of the next couple of hours, it looked like Sean Miller’s Wildcats were going the way of Stanford — a higher seed upset by an upstart lower seed.

But, after a frenetic final nine minutes, Arizona and Sean Miller survived and advanced, outlasting San Diego State 70-64 in a taut thriller that featured no lulls.

No. 1 seed Arizona (33-4) will play No. 2 seed Wisconsin in Saturday’s Elite Eight game at 8:49 p.m. at the Honda Center.

“We watched the [Dayton] game in our locker room and were pulling for Dayton,’’ Sean Miller said. “The fact that the two of us are in the Elite Eight is very unique. I’m happy for Dayton and Arizona, but this is about Arizona having an opportunity to get to the Final Four.

“This was a game of resolve and will. We’ve played 37 games this year and that was the most physical, hard-fought game of the season for us. San Diego State set the tone on how the game was going to be played. The story is about us finding a way and advancing.’’

Twelve teams remain after Thursday night’s games.

For San Diego State, which was trying to advance to the Elite Eight for the first time in school history, it was a bitter loss.

“Hard when it ends — and it ended for us tonight — but we were beaten by a very good team … and we’re very disappointed,’’ San Diego State coach Steve Fisher said.

“We just fell short,’’ said SDSU’s Xavier Thames, who led all scorers with 25 points.

After San Diego State (31-5) controlled most of the game, it began to change for Arizona halfway through the second half — with 9:15 remaining to be precise. That’s when Arizona guard Nick Johnson, scored his first points with a 3-pointer to cut San Diego State’s lead to 45-44.

Johnson was 0-for-7 in the first half and missed his first 10 shots before that 3-pointer, a basket that seemed to take the weight of the game off the Wildcats’ shoulders. He would finish with 15 points on 2-of-12 shooting from the field but 10-of-10 from the line — all of which came in the final 1:32.

“Nick Johnson is a great player; he just exploded in the second half,’’ SDSU’s Dwayne Polee, a transfer from St. John’s, said after scoring 13 points.

“Good players do that,’’ Fisher said.

Two minutes after that liberating Johnson basket, Arizona took a 50-49 lead on a T.J. McConnell layup, forcing a SDSU timeout with 7:16 remaining. The Wildcats, who are now 8-2 this season after trailing at halftime, would never trail the rest of the game.

Two critical sequences turned it for Arizona in the closing moments. First, after two offensive rebounds during a possession, a Kaleb Tarczewski basket gave the Wildcats a 54-51 lead with 3:28 remaining. Then, after a diving steal by McConnell (11 points), Johnson scored on a layup to make it 56-51 with 2:38 remaining.

“I stuck my hand in there, saw it rolling and dove on it,’’ McConnell said. “That was a very pivotal part in the game.’’

Another Johnson 3-pointer with 1:47 gave Arizona a 59-53 lead the Aztecs could not overcome despite hitting two desperation treys.

The atmosphere in the building nicknamed “The Pond’’ for its regular tenants, the NHL’s Ducks, was electrically charged, with 17,773 fans, many from San Diego State making the 90-minute drive up Interstate 5, and Arizona and its nationally-prominent program traveling well, too.

It was loud and spirited, with “U-of-A’’ chants routinely drowned out by the louder San Diego State fans. The game matched the atmosphere, with the intensity never waning from the opening tap.

So the Miller brothers’ collision course to the Final Four continues. Before the games began Thursday, they already had the distinction as the first brothers to lead two different teams to the Sweet 16. Now, it gets better. They’re the first brothers to lead different teams to the Elite Eight.

Archie, Sean’s assistant for two years before getting to run his own shop in Dayton, moved on first and Sean followed on what became an historic night.