LONGVIEW, Texas – Keaton Shaw buried a three-pointer at the buzzer as the University of St. Thomas men's basketball team knocked off No. 2 nationally-ranked Louisiana State University-Alexandria, 73-72, in the Red River Athletic Conference semifinals Friday.

St. Thomas (22-10) advanced to Saturday's 4 p.m. championship game to play LSU-Shreveport at LeTourneau University.

The Celts, who led by as many as nine in the second half, executed the final 14 seconds perfectly while trailing, 71-70. With five fouls to give, UST substituted Peter Ellwanger, Freddie Ricks and Christian Alaekwe with 14 seconds left to scramble for four fouls after Cameron Gims committed the first of the five to send LSU-Alexandria (28-3) to the line.

Malek Harris sank the first free throw to put the Generals up two. He missed the second, but Sam Flores grabbed the rebound for the Celts with 11 seconds to go. After UST called timeout with six seconds remaining, Kennard Robinson found Shaw for the gamewinning triple to send the Celts to their third RRAC Championship game.

St. Thomas trailed by as many as 10 in the first half, but went on an 8-0 run to pull within 26-24 on Robinson's transition bucket. Robinson, who finished with 22 points, seven assists and four rebounds, scored eight points within 42 seconds as the Celts pulled within 37-36. But the Generals closed the half with an 8-2 run to take a 45-38 lead into the break.

Gims buried two threes to open the second half as the Celts cut the gap to one, only to have LSU-Alexandria extend the lead back to six on a basket by Harris. Nathan Thormaehlen scored with 13:04 to go to put the Celts in front, 55-54. Another triple by Gims and a basket by Robinson pushed St. Thomas up, 65-56, at the 8:42 mark.

Thormaehlen scored with 7:02 to play to keep the Celts in front by nine, but the Generals erased that lead with a 10-0 run to reclaim a 68-67 advantage on JaMichael Brown's basket at the 2:32 mark. Gims hit his fourth triple 16 seconds later after Thormaehlen pulled down a big rebound and fed the Celts freshman with the go-ahead basket. But Chris Vickers hit a triple to give the lead back to LSU-Alexandria with 1:15 to go.

After the Celts absorbed the necessary fouls to send the Generals to the line, Shaw played the hero's role in a dramatic finish.

Gims finished with 12 points, five rebounds, three steals and two blocks, while going 4 of 8 from long distance. Shaw had 12 points, five boards and three assists. Thormaehlen had 17 points, nine rebounds and three assists.

William Claiborne had 15 points and seven rebounds, and Vickers scored 13 for the Generals.

UST shot 46 percent from the field. The Celts held the Generals to 39 percent shooting. UST's bench outscored LSU-Alexandria, 31-26.

The Celts overcame a 6-for-14 effort from the free throw line.

Saturday's championship game will be available on Live Stream here: https://collegetvticket.com/player/notAvailable/event/10519/.