AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Top-seeded and fourth-ranked Augusta State survived a furious late-game charge by No. 8 seed Tusculum, winning 62-60, in the quarterfinals of the 2009 NCAA Southeast Regional on Saturday evening in Christenberry Fieldhouse.

With the victory, the host Jaguars (27-4) extended their winning streak to 13 straight and matched the school record for wins in a season with 27. ASU advanced to its third consecutive region semifinal, which will take place on 7:30 p.m. on Sunday evening. The Jags will face the winner of No. 4 seed GCSU and No. 5 seed Barton. Tusculum finishes its season at 20-11 in just its second NCAA Regionals berth in school history.

Trailing 62-60 with 13 seconds left, Tusculum guard Jimmy Boone came up with a steal of a Fred Brathwaite pass, but his off-balance three-pointer was short with two seconds left. Augusta State guard Steve Smith missed the front end of his one-and-one, but Tusculum was unable to get a quality shot off in the final 1.1 seconds after securing the rebound.

It was the stellar play of South Atlantic Conference Player of the Year Kyle Moore that willed the Pioneers back into the game late in the second half. Augusta State led by as many as 17 points after halftime, but a Moore layup cut the lead to single digits, 54-45, with 4:38 left, then Moore hit two three-pointers to make it 55-51 with 1:34 remaining. A 32' three-pointer by Moore from in front of the Tusculum bench made it a one-possession game, 60-57, with 22.9 seconds left, and another three-pointer by Ryan Troutman with 16.7 seconds left brought the score to two, 62-60, setting up the late-game drama.

Tusculum weathered an early Ben Madgen storm in the first half. Madgen scored 10 of the Jaguars' first 12 points as Augusta State opened up with a 12-7 lead. Tusculum got back-to-back three-pointers from Moore and a basket by Taylor Hobbs to take a 23-15 lead with 5:46 left in the first half.

Augusta State responded with a 13-2 run at the end of the half, sparked by a Fred Brathwaite three-pointer and a dunk on consecutive possessions, to take a 30-27 lead into halftime. Madgen's 10 points led the host Jaguars at halftime, while Moore had 12 at intermission to lead Tusculum.

The blistering play by Augusta State at the end of the half continued after halftime as the Jaguars scored the first six points of the second half on a Madgen steal and layup, a Garrett Siler dunk and a Greg Hire driving layup. The 25-4 run covering the final five minutes of the first half and the first five minutes of the second half was capped by back-to-back Madgen three-pointers, giving ASU a seemingly insurmountable 42-29 lead with 14:38 remaining.

Madgen led a trio of Jaguar players in double figures with 18 points. Garrett Siler recorded his ninth double-double of the season with 15 points and 11 rebounds, his 19th straight game with double digit scoring. Fred Brathwaite added 16 points for the Jaguars.

Moore led the Pioneers on the night with his game-high 23 points on 8-of-16 shooting from the floor, which included 7-of-12 shooting from beyond the arc. Rob Troutman notched 14 points, while Ryan Troutman added 13 points on a perfect 3-of-3 night from three-point range.

Tusculum hit 11-of-20 shots from three-point range on the night (55 percent), but hit just 46.9 percent from the floor (23-of-49 shots). Augusta State hit 46.8 percent from the floor (22-of-47 shots), including 7-of-17 from three-point range (41.2 percent).


Game Quotes

Tusculum Head Coach Jim Boone
"I'm really proud of our team, I thought we did a tremendous job at executing our game plan, battling for fourty minutes and giving ourselves an opportunity to win the game. I am disapointed that the middle of the second half we got away from what we have to do to be successful. You have to give Augusta all the credit in the world, because when we got away from what we neeeded to do they really capitalized on it and built a 17-point lead."

"It is a hard way to end the season on back-to-back heartbreakers. But at the same time to have a group that battles like we battled all the way until the end to give us every opportunity, where it came down to that last shot where if it goes in we win the game."

On Kyle Moore:
"They did a really good job on being very physical in guarding him very tight, they chased him to take away the three-point shot.

On the final possession:
"Well we wanted to foul immediately, but we had him (Fred Brathwaite) so dead in the corner that I thought that Kyle (Moore) and Ryan (Troutman) make a great decision to aggresively trap him and go for the steal."

Tusculum Guard Kyle Moore
On being defended by Augusta:
"Throughout the whole second half they were on me, I couldn't really get an open look until I started coming off screens and dishing to my big men."

On his teammates:
"A lot of my teammates stepped up, Ryan Troutman and Jimmy (Boone) hit a lot of three-point shots which makes us more dangerous because we have more weapons and once that happened I felt like I got more room to shoot."

Augusta State Head Coach Dip Metress
"We prepared them, we knew it was going to be just like this. We were fortunate to get off to a good start and then we relaxed, but I knew it was going to be like this, I thought we were going to be able to close it out, but then they were able to make four threes in the last minute."

On playing Tusculum:
"We knew the screens were coming, we were somewhat prepared for it, we played well down the stretch and we are very fortunate to be playing tomorrow and we are excited about the challenge tomorrow evening."

On the second half run:
"Well we closed out the half in a positive way and we obviously emphasized getting the ball into Garret (Siler) and they did some things with their post doubling him, but the main thing is defensively we got some deflections and runouts and that was able to open the game up a little bit."

Thoughts during the final play:
"Please don't go in, you see these shots all the time and you see a guy running around the court with his arms up, but it didn't go in and at this juncture in the game it doesn't matter how it works out, you just take it and you forget about the good things we did and the bad things we did and tomorrow at one o'clock we will prepare for the next game."

Augusta State Forward Fred Brathwaite
On the last play:
When I got trapped I saw Steve (Smith) but I couldn't see who was coming to play defensive, but I threw it and I heard the crowd's reaction and I looked over and they had the ball, but we had good enough defense and got it back and we won and that's all that matters."

Augusta State Guard Ben Madgen
On breaking it open in the second half:
"Yeah we definitely wanted to keep pushing forward, we know they are a great three-point shooting team and just like that they can get back into the game, and that's what they did, they hit a couple of tough shots and they were right back in it and then we just slugged it out the rest of the game."

On Tusculum's late run:
"I thought that we played well enough to get out and get a lead so if they did start making some shots like they did at the end we would have enough buffer."

Augusta State Center Garret Siler
On the start of the game:
"I think we were all ready to play, everybody really wanted to play their best today."