San Diego State will play for the national championship after winning a Final Four thriller. No. 9 seed Florida Atlantic led for more than 31 minutes of Saturday night’s game in Houston. At the final buzzer, No. 5 seed San Diego State was on top, 72-71.

Lamont Butler was the hero for SDSU. Trailing 71-70, the Aztecs got the ball back with 5 seconds left. Butler got a jumper off 2 seconds before the buzzer sounded.

San Diego State led early, but much of the night belonged to FAU. The Aztecs overcame a 14-point deficit in the 2nd half.

SDSU opened up a 14-5 lead at the 14:38 mark of the 1st half before FAU got rolling. In the final 1:02 of the 1st half, the Owls had a 10-point lead of 40-30. The Aztecs made the final field goal of the period to cut it to 40-33 at the break. Before Saturday, the Owls were 27-1 when leading at the half.

FAU’s largest lead of the game was 56-42 at the 13:53 mark of the 2nd half. The Owls went cold from the floor for a long stretch of the 2nd half, allowing SDSU to chip away at the lead. In the 2nd half, FAU made just 8-of-24 field goal attempts.

The Aztecs went on a 7-0 run to make it a 60-58 game with 9:05 left. At the 4:24 mark, the Owls’ lead was gone as San Diego State had tied it up 65-65. With 2 minutes left, it was just a 1-point difference of 67-66.

Matt Bradley was San Diego State’s top scorer in the 2nd half with 10 points, going 7-of-9 at the free-throw line with a 3-point field goal. Bradley was SDSU’s high scorer for the game with 21 points. FAU’s Alijah Martin led all with 26 points, including 19 in the 2nd half.

The Aztecs’ Micah Parrish made both of his 3-point attempts in the 2nd half for 6 points. Butler, who had the buzzer-beater scored just 4 in the 2nd half.

SDSU will face the winner of Miami-UConn on Monday night for the national championship.