Washington — The perfect storm finally fizzled out.

The 14th-seeded Georgia Bulldogs were blown to the nation's capital by a championship in a tornado-interrupted SEC tournament in Atlanta. They landed at the Verizon Center with every intention of continuing to carve a path of improbability through the postseason.

Rich Addicks / AJC (ENLARGE)

Georgia's (from left) Corey Butler, Dave Bliss and Billy Humphrey leave the court after their NCAA tournament ended after one game.

Rich Addicks / AJC (ENLARGE)

Sundiata Gaines finds the going tough as he tries to create some operating room between two Xavier defenders.

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BY THE NUMBERS • UGA-Xavier box score

But their advance was stopped by Xavier, a team that got every break and was good enough to take advantage of it. The third-seeded Musketeers (28-6) outscored the Bulldogs 41-18 in the last 16 minutes to win 73-61 in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

It was an excruciating finish to Georgia's thrilling run.

"Certainly this one stings a little bit right now," said Georgia senior co-captain Dave Bliss, who fouled out with 33 seconds remaining. "But what we were able to do, not only last weekend but the whole season, is something I'll be proud of forever. I hope that our younger guys have learned what it takes, the kind of effort it takes, to play on this level and take that forward into next year."

Said fellow captain and senior Sundiata Gaines: "We made a special run. We weren't even supposed to be here, but we had a chance to win this game. The only thing that's disappointing is that we let that big lead slip away so easily."

The officiating crew didn't make it any easier on the Dogs. The game was decided at the free-throw line, where Xavier got 33 chances to Georgia's five. Gaines, who made a career out of driving to the basket, did not attempt a free throw for the first time this season and, coach Dennis Felton believes, his career.

"I felt like the difference in the game was the fact that they were good enough to get to the line 29 times to our five in the second half," Felton said. "We made a lot more field goals than they did (16 to 10), we kept them off the offensive glass, which was critical. I don't think I've ever seen Yata not get to the foul line in his career."

Fatigue might have had something to do with it. The Bulldogs were playing their fifth game in a week — after playing three in the final two days of the SEC tournament. Xavier had been off since a loss last Friday in the Atlantic 10 semifinals.

But none of Georgia's players or coaches was willing to admit that fatigue contributed to the loss.

"I thought we played at a high energy level that allowed us to get the lead in the first place," Bliss said. "I just think that things went against us, and Xavier was able to make more plays than us down the stretch. I don't think that was the result of fatigue."

Georgia was paced offensively by Terrance Woodbury with 16 points. Gaines added 13, Billy Humphrey 12 and freshman forward Jeremy Price had 10.

Xavier, which meets Purdue in the next round, got 20 points from forward Josh Duncan, including 11 from the free-throw line, and Derrick Brown added 19.

Georgia led by nine points at halftime and stretched that advantage to 43-32 on Woodbury's baseline jumper with 16 minutes, 8 seconds remaining. That's when the Musketeers made their run, along with the first two of 29 second-half free-throw attempts.

Xavier outscored the Bulldogs 10-3 in a span of 3:40, with eight of the points coming on foul shots. Georgia was whistled for four personal fouls during that stretch. The Musketeers weren't called for any.

Xavier kept up its half-court defensive pressure, led by A-10 defensive player of the year Stanley Burrell on Gaines. The Musketeers started getting run-outs off turnovers and defensive stops and continued to get to the free-throw line. They completed a 27-8 run and increased the lead to 59-51 with 5:05 to go.

Georgia whittled it to 64-61 at 1:32 on a Bliss dunk on which he appeared to be fouled. But the Bulldogs came out of a timeout at 1:24 and Gaines fouled Xavier's Drew Lavender 40 feet from the basket. The Musketeers proceeded to make 9 of 10 free throws to close the game while the Bulldogs missed five 3-point attempts and a foul shot.

"It was absolutely critical at that point that we get a stop without fouling," Felton said. "I almost fell out of my chair."

But Felton tried to emphasize the positive. He plans to return to Athens a clean-shaven man ready to go back to work.

"I made a promise to our student body that I'd lose the mustache if we won the SEC championship," Felton said with a grin. "I not only plan on doing that, I look forward to it."