SALEM -- The end could not have been more fitting for Troy Kaase.

After throwing up enough bricks from point blank range to build a house in the first half, Kaase tipped in a missed shot by teammate Turner King at the end of the second half.

That follow shot came with 3.8 seconds left in the game, and it gave Hampden-Sydney an improbable come-from-behind 69-67 victory over archrival Randolph-Macon.

The Tigers' victory in a quarterfinal round game of the ODAC men's tournament puts them in a semifinal tonight against Virginia Wesleyan. That game tips off at 8 p.m.

The Tigers were down by 17 at halftime, and that deficit grew to 19 points after 28 seconds into the second half.

Then, Hampden-Sydney began its inexorable comeback. The Tigers did not lead until Kaase's final shot.

"We knew we weren't going to get back in the game with one shot," Kaase said. "But we knew what would get us back in the game was our defense."

The Tigers used their zone defense in the second half. That cut down on Justin Short's opportunities -- he made four 3-pointers in the first half -- and made it difficult to get the ball inside to Jeremy Dixon.

Meanwhile, Kaase was doing in the second half what he had been unable to do in the first half -- make shots. Kaase, a senior from Cave Spring High School in Roanoke, made just two of seven shots, and most of them were taken right in front of the basket, in the opening 20 minutes.

In the second half, he was seven for nine, including the biggest shot of the game.

"It was frustrating missing all those shots in the first half," Kaase said. "I just kept thinking, 'Next play. Next play.'

"Sometimes they go in and sometimes they don't. I'm just thankful that one went in at the end."

The Tigers got the ball for their final possession after Dixon missed with 36 seconds left. Hampden-Sydney pushed the ball into the front court and called timeout with 29 seconds left on the shot clock, 30.8 left in the game.

Tigers coach Bubba Smith calmly went over a play his team had practiced just the other day.

"The play was out of our regular offense," Smith said. "It helped that we didn't have to draw up a new one."

The play is "30-Iso" and is designed to get the ball to Turner King on the wing. The idea is that King will drive and shoot with three seconds left in the game with one of three results: He makes the shot. He gets fouled. He misses the shot and a teammate taps in the rebound.

"I shot with five seconds left," King said, smiling, "because I wanted to get the ball to Troy."

In practice before coming here for the tournament, King's shot on that play had been too long.

"I told Troy to position himself to get the backside rebound," Smith said. "It worked."

Everything was working well for the Yellow Jackets early.

"Twenty minutes is too long to protect a lead," said Randolph-Macon coach Mike Rhoades. "These darn Hampden-Sydney-Randolph Macon games are always close.

"When you have shooters like they do, you can get back in the game fast. We let them get it under 10 points too quickly."

The Tigers cut the halftime deficit with just under 14 minutes left in the game. They also helped themselves immensely by making 18 of 20 free throws,

"This is definitely the No.1 highlight of my career," Kaase said.

So far, anyway.

HAMPDEN-SYDNEY (15-11)

Prehmus 14, Trops 6, Kaase 22, Lawton 3, King 18, Dillard 0, Matthews 4, Partsch 0, Medlin 0, Laakso 2, O'Neill 0. Totals: 23 18-20 69. 3-point goals: Prehmus 2, Trops, Lawton, King.
RANDOLPH-MACON (20-6)

Dixon 11, Brown 11, Varela 8, Short 24, Jones 6, Hunter 3, Pugh 0, Voelkel 4, Scheeler 0, Campion 0, Browna 0. Totals: 24 11-17 67. 3-point goals: Short 6, Brown, Hunter.

Halftime: Randolph-Macon 37-20.

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