Aztecs hold off Gaels; heading to NYC

SAN DIEGO — Steve Fisher's San Diego State Aztecs are going to New York and Patrick Mills is heading into the offseason.

The Aztecs blew a 13-point second-half lead, then rallied to beat Mills and the Saint Mary's Gaels 70-66 on Wednesday night to reach the semifinals of the NIT.

Tim Shelton posted up for the go-ahead basket with 48.6 seconds left and Richie Williams made three free throws in the final 26 seconds as the Aztecs held off the Gaels.

Mills was on the bench at the final buzzer, having fouled out with 10.8 seconds to go. He scored a game-high 18 points but had a horrible night shooting, going 7-for-24 overall and 4-for-13 on 3-pointers.

Billy White scored 17 for the Aztecs (26-9), who will play Baylor (23-14) in the semifinals on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.

This is the deepest SDSU has advanced in a postseason tournament in its Division I history. Students rushed the court after the buzzer.

NOTRE DAME 77, KENTUCKY 67: At South Bend, Ind., Luke Harangody had 30 points and 11 rebounds and Notre Dame hit 12 3-pointers to end a 10-game losing streak to Kentucky to advance to the NIT semifinals.

Jodie Meeks scored 18 of his 21 points in the final 12:18 as the Wildcats (22-14) used a 17-5 run to cut the lead to 67-62 on a slam dunk by Perry Stevenson with 2:42 left. But the Irish were 8-of-8 from the free-throw line over the final 1:29 to end the game on a 10-5 run to hang on.

Kyle McAlarney added 15 points and Ryan Ayers, who held Meeks to one basket until the Irish were up by 15, added 14 points on 4-of-7 3-pointers for Notre Dame (21-14).

The Irish will face Penn State (25-11) Tuesday night in New York.

CBI

UTEP 81, RICHMOND 69: At Richmond, Va., Stefon Jackson scored 34 points and Texas-El Paso went on a 10-0 run after Richmond closed within two in the second half Wednesday night and the Miners beat the Spiders 81-69 to reach the College Basketball Invitational finals.

UTEP (22-12), in its third season under Tony Barbee, will play Oregon State or Stanford, who played later in the later semifinal, in a best-of-three series beginning March 30.

Richmond (20-16) didn't score for more than four minutes after Ryan Butler's driving layup pulled them to 58-56 with 7:59 to play. During the drought, coach Chris Mooney was ejected for drawing his second technical foul for arguing what he thought was poor officiating.

David Gonzalvez led the Spiders with 24 points.