The Associated Press

But instead of No. 4 Hastings delivering the knockout punch like it has done so many times before, it was the Bobcats who came away with a 79-75 double-overtime victory in the semifinals of the NAIA Division II national tournament.

Thanks to last-second shots in both regulation and the first overtime, Ozarks (35-1) advanced to play in Tuesday's 6:30 p.m. national title game at the Tyson Events Center. Hastings, which was making its fifth semifinal appearance in the past seven years, finished its season 30-5.

"We had them beat twice," Hastings coach Tony Hobson said in a post-game radio interview. "We had them in regulation in a good spot and couldn't finish them off and we had them in overtime. For whatever reason, we just couldn't finish them off."

Ravenna sophomore Heather McKeon led Hastings with 22 points off the bench. Six-foot-4 Broncos' center Breanna Lien just missed a triple-double with 14 points, a national-tournament record 11 blocked shots and nine rebounds.

"If we wouldn't have had her out there, we wouldn't have even been in the game," Hobson said of Lien, who has played in place of injured starting center Lindsay Ducey for the past month. "They didn't score on us inside when she was in there. I mean she just blocked everything."

Rachael VanKirk had 16 points and five assists for Hastings. Haruka Yamashita finished with 15 points and five assists, playing 46 minutes in the final game of her Bronco career.

Kayli Combs scored a game-high 26 points, hitting 6-of-9 shots from 3-point range for Ozarks. Lindsy Murray had 18 points and 13 rebounds and Rebekah Howard had 13 points and 10 boards for the Bobcats.

Hastings, which beat Ozarks in the 2006 championship game, appeared to be on its way to eliminating the Bobcats again as two McKeon free throws gave the Broncos a 61-59 lead with 2:05 left. That score remained until Murray converted a putback with 2.8 seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime.

"We missed some free throws late in the game that killed us," Hobson said. "We gave up two offensive rebounds that they scored on when we were up five in regulation and you just can't do that."

On the other hand, Hobson said he felt one of his players was obviously fouled on the play where Murray grabbed the offensive rebound and scored.

"These officials that say, 'We want the players to decide it,' well, OK, let's just let somebody punch somebody in the mouth that will decide it," Hobson said. "How about if you call the game like you called it all game? So they absolutely swallowed their whistle on that one."

Yamashita made a 3-pointer and a two-point basket to give Hastings a quick lead in the first OT. The Broncos led 70-64 with 2:43 left in the first extra period after Lien picked up a loose ball in the lane and scored.

But with Hastings ahead 72-69 and the clocking ticking down, Combs banked in a 3-pointer with one second left, forcing a second OT.

Hobson criticized himself for making the wrong personnel decision and allowing Combs to get off the final shot. Hobson said he put Lien in the game for defensive rebounding purposes, which turned out to be a mistake when the post player was unable to get through a screen in time to contest Comb's perimeter shot.

"It probably wasn't good on my part," Hobson said. "I was probably thinking a little too much.

"It's going to be a pretty hard one to live with for a whole year."

Ozarks led throughout the second overtime, but a McKeon basket with 35 seconds left cut Hastings' deficit to 77-75. The Broncos had a chance to tie, calling a timeout to set up a play with 6.8 seconds remaining, but Yamashita had the basketball stripped out of her hands.

Lindsey Messick came up with the steal for Ozarks, was fouled and hit two free throws with 1.6 seconds to play, sealing the win. Messick, who was shooting 51 percent from the free-throw line entering the national tournament, was 3-for-4 in the stripe in the final 17.8 seconds.

"We set up a play that we've run before and didn't execute it correctly," Hobson said. "We were supposed to go to Heather in the corner and look inside to Breanna, but we messed that up. The second option was to get it in to Haruka and come over a screen.

"She was going to penetrate and kick to the corner for the three, but she got stripped. I don't know it's just hard to swallow right now."

Hastings played another strong defensive game, holding Ozarks the highest-scoring team in the country to 34.1-percent shooting from the field.

"The reason they're the highest-scoring team in the nation is because they play teams that can't guard them," Hobson said. "They're a good offensive team, but they're not as good of an offensive team as Northwestern (Iowa). It's just that Northwestern plays people every night and they don't.

"Their averages are just that. It depends who you're playing, what league you're in and all those things."

Hobson said Hastings, which became the winningest team in NAIA Division II national tournament history last Thursday with a first-round victory over King College (Tenn.), made an impressive tournament run.

"Our kids played so hard," Hobson said. "It's unbelievable what these guys put out there.

"You get beat by a banked three sometimes you're wondering if it was meant to be."

HASTINGS (30-6)

VanKirk 6-10 2-2 16, Yamashita 6-20 0-0 15, Broekemeier 2-8 0-0 6, McKeon 6-13 6-10 22, Lien 7-12 0-0 14, Faimon 0-1 0-0 0, Cambridge 0-2 0-0 0, Schmaderer 0-0 0-0 0, Isherwood 1-6 0-1 2, Kulus 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 28-73 8-13 75.

OZARKS (35-1)

DeMuth 4-15 1-1 11, Combs 9-16 2-2 26, Howard 6-20 0-0 13, Murray 7-19 4-4 18, Sparkman 1-6 3-4 6, L.Messick 0-0 3-4 3, K.Messick 0-1 0-0 0, Nichols 1-5 0-0 2. Totals 28-82 13-15 79.

Halftime Ozarks 32, Hastings 27. Regulation Tied at 61. First overtime Tied at 72. 3-point goals Hastings 11-37 (VanKirk 2-5, Yamashita 3-13, Broekemeier 2-7, Cambridge 0-1, McKeon 4-10, Kulus 0-1), Ozarks 10-31 (Sparkman 1-5, DeMuth 2-9, Combs 6-9, Howard 1-7, Murray 0-1). Fouled out VanKirk, Yamashita, Murray. Rebounds Hastings 46 (Lien 9), Ozarks 58 (Murray 15). Assists Hastings 18 (VanKirk, Yamashita 5), Ozarks 13 (Sparkman, Howard 4). Turnovers Hastings 14, Ozarks 16. Total fouls Hastings 14, Ozarks 15. Technicals None. A NA.