San Diego State vs. St. John's: Score, Twitter Reaction from March Madness 2015

The San Diego State Aztecs prevailed over the St. John's Red Storm in the second round of the 2015 NCAA tournament Friday, winning 76-64.

Dwayne Polee II and J.J. O'Brien led the way for the Aztecs, combining to score 33 points on 13-of-19 shooting. Polee was deadly from behind the arc, with all five of his made field goals coming from three-point range.

Bench-scoring was also one of the deciding factors. San Diego State got 24 points from players outside its starting five; St. John's, meanwhile, got zero points from its bench.

That wiped out a 21-point, 10-rebound performance from Sir'Dominic Pointer. D'Angelo Harrison's 18 points and nine rebounds will also be forgotten in the loss.

During the regular season, San Diego State was accustomed to hanging its hat on its defense. The Aztecs allowed 53.1 points a game, which ranked second in the country behind the Virginia Cavaliers.

That defensive strength allowed SDSU to win 25 games with an offense that ranked 300th in average scoring. Also worth noting is that the Aztecs averaged just 5.2 made three-pointers a game, which put them 278th.

Putting all of that into consideration made the Aztecs' first-half performance all the more surprising.

They owned a 40-33 lead heading into the locker room.

As a team, the Red Storm shot 50 percent (15-of-30) from the floor. On the other side, San Diego State relied heavily on the three ball, hitting seven throughout the half. Matt Shrigley went a perfect 3-of-3 behind the three-point line.

It was almost the complete opposite from how most of San Diego State's games have unfolded this year.

SDSU head coach Steve Fisher joked that his team's offensive output was at historic levels, per Jay Posner of U-T San Diego:

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The Aztecs' advantage from long range was the biggest difference between the two teams. As Zach Braziller of the New York Post noted, St. John's owned the edge inside:

The Red Storm also had a small handful of players run into foul trouble in the first half, a development which ESPN.com's Jeff Borzello felt didn't help matters for the No. 9 seed:

San Diego State quickly jumped out to a 14-point lead in the second half and looked like it wouldn't look back from there.

However, St. John's failed to fall away and attempted to make a comeback. Unfortunately, it didn't string enough good possessions together to ever do any serious damage.

The Red Storm would cut the deficit down to seven or eight points, but the Aztecs would respond in kind with a bucket or two of their own. San Diego State always managed to keep its opponent just far enough to where it couldn't build any sort of momentum.

San Diego State will play Duke in the next round. The Aztecs' defensive strength will make them a nightmare for the Blue Devils; however, Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv feels that the top seed won't have much trouble dispatching its Mountain West foe:

The big question is whether the Aztecs can repeat this kind of offensive showing. It's not in keeping with their style, but as ESPN.com's John Gasaway argued, they're a much different team when they can complement their stout defense with a functional scoring unit:

The Blue Devils and Aztecs will clash on Sunday in one of the more intriguing third-round matchups.

Whether or not Fisher can devise a game plan to neutralize Jahlil Okafor will be one of the biggest questions heading into the game.