March Madness: San Diego State cruises past Yale to set up title game rematch with UConn in Sweet 16

After an impressive outing on Friday, Yale came crashing down hard on Sunday night.

The Bulldogs, who won the Ivy League earlier this month and then stunned Auburn in the opening round, didn’t show up in their second round NCAA tournament game. No. 5 San Diego State dominated No. 13 Yale from the jump in Spokane, Washington, on Sunday night and cruised to an 85-57 win.

That officially sent the Aztecs back into the Sweet 16 for the second straight season, and set up a matchup against top-seeded UConn on Thursday night in Boston — which will provide fans with an early rematch of last year’s national championship game.

The Aztecs opened the game on a 10-0 run and held Yale scoreless for the first four minutes. The Bulldogs couldn’t get much offense going whatsoever in the first half after that stretch, either. They had two near-five minute stretches without scoring a single point, and they fell into a 24-point hole by halftime.

SDSU's Jaedon LeDee, on the other hand, couldn’t miss. He had 17 of his 26 points in the first half and shot 6-of-7 from the field. The Aztecs shot nearly 52% from the field as a team in the first half, too, and out-rebounded Yale by 11.

Though Yale came out better to start the second half, it was way too late to make much of a difference. The Aztecs held on to grab a 28-point win without issue.

Bez Mbeng led Yale with 12 points and five rebounds, and Matt Knowling finished with 11 points. They were the only two Bulldogs to hit double figures in the loss. LeDee finished with 26 points and nine rebounds while shooting 9-of-12 from the field. Darrion Trammell added 18 points and five rebounds. San Diego State finished shooting nearly 53% from the field as a team and 13-of-27 from behind the arc.

The Aztecs will now head to Boston, where the Huskies will be waiting for them in a huge rematch of last year’s national championship game. SDSU reached the title game by beating FAU on a buzzer-beater in the Final Four, but UConn rolled to a 17-point blowout win in the championship. The Huskies reloaded perfectly this season, too. They ran the Big East, took the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament and then absolutely dominated Northwestern to reach the Sweet 16 on Sunday.

While UConn feels like the best chance to win back-to-back titles since Florida did so nearly two decades ago, SDSU will have a perfect shot at revenge on Thursday night. Not only would that provide them a bit of closure from last spring, but it would open the rest of the tournament up completely.