Southern Poly falls in NAIA semifinals

Southern Polytechnic State's improbable run through the NAIA Division I tournament ended on Monday night with an 80-68 loss to 13th-seeded Asusa Pacific in the semifinals in Kansas City, Mo.

The Hornets trailed by 14 points with 8:35 to play, but tied the game 66-66 on Xavier Dawson's three-point play with 3:09 to play. But the Asusa's Dominique Johnson broke the tie with a jump shot and Azusa (28-9) pulled away to advance to the championship game on Tuesday night.

The Hornets had knocked off 16th-seeded Oklahoma City, top-seeded Mountain State (W.Va.) and John Brown (Ark.) University in the first three rounds, teams that had combined for four NAIA titles since 2004.