AUGUSTA – Stubbornness can be an honorable character trait in basketball.

For third-seeded St. Dom’s, it nearly helped the Saints pull off a major upset in the Western Class C semifinals. For second-seeded Jay, it helped the Tigers overcome their worst performance since before Christmas and move on to their second regional championship game in three years.

Jay roared back from a 10-point deficit with six minutes left to send the game to overtime, then survived the extra session to defeat the scrappy Saints, 48-44, Thursday night at the Augusta Civic Center.

The Tigers will meet fourth-seeded Georges Valley in the regional final Saturday night.

“We got lucky,” said Jay coach Mike Child, whose team has now won 15 straight. “We probably played the worst game we’ve probably played in 15 games. I take my hat off to my ball club, but I also take my hat off to (St. Dom’s coach) Dan DeBruin and the St. Dom’s Saints, because they definitely gave us everything we could ask for.”

“We didn’t win that game, we just survived it,” said Jay senior guard Justin Wells, who had three key steals and scored five of his eight points in the final 2:15 of regulation. “We came out a little overconfident and they came out ready to play.”

Marc Kelvey led the Tigers (18-2) with 16 points and six rebounds, while Sean Fry added 12 points and 11 boards. Chris Rainville, Ian Pullen and Jeremy Richardson led the Saints (15-3) with 10 points apiece.

A Pullen bucket and Rainville free throw gave the Saints the 10-point bulge at 38-28 with 5:55 left. The desperate Tigers then ratcheted up their full-court pressure and went on a 14-0 run. Kelvey started it with a steal and layup. Another Kelvey hoop and one by Zach Charles pulled the Tigers within four with 2:15 left. Wells then started to get physical with Pullen in the backcourt, and with the officials letting it go, he made back-to-back steals that led to a hoop of his own and a Jacob Farrington free throw that pulled Jay within one.

St. Dom’s, which had taken such good care of the ball through the first three quarters (seven turnovers), struggled in the stall game and couldn’t protect the lead.

“They hit a couple of baskets and you could almost see it in the kids’ eyes,” said Saints co-coach Dan DeBruin. “Slowing the game down really doesn’t go into our strength. We’re a team that when we have an open look, we take it.”

A Wells free throw tied it, then a Fry putback and two more Wells freebies put Jay up 42-38 with 35 seconds left. St. Dom’s forced overtime with a Pullen layup and two clutch free throws by Rainville with 7.7 seconds left.

Fry and Pullen traded baskets to extend the tie to 44-44 with 1:46 left in OT. Ryan DiPompo then picked up a loose ball and laid it in to give Jay the lead for good with 27 seconds to go. St. Dom’s had one last chance to tie, but turned the ball over on their final possession.

“I think the difference was the experience that we had out here and their lack of it,” said Wells, who played on Jay’s 2002 championship team.

The Saints’ seemed more nervous at the start, as Jay opened the game in a 3-2 zone, daring them win the game from the outside. The Saints started ice cold, missing 12 of their first 13 from 3-point territory, and Kelvey scored all 12 of Jay’s points in the quarter to give the Tigers a 12-7 lead after one.

“We got here by shooting 3s. A lot of games we had to hit eight or nine 3s to win,” said Saints’ co-coach Mike Gray. “We knew if we kept getting the open looks we’d start hitting them and we knew our defense would keep us in it until we started hitting our shots.”

Indeed, the defense kept them in it, holding Jay to 24 percent shooting in the first half, and the Saints finally started hitting those shots in the second quarter. Nate Hamlyn nailed back-to-back treys to tie the game at 17 and, perhaps more importantly, force Jay out of the zone and into a man-to-man defense. Another trey by Justin Fongemie put the Saints up three at the half.

“All season long, we’ve been able to shut teams’ 3-point shooters down with that, but they brought four outside shooters, which we haven’t seen,” Child said. “I take my hat off to St. Dom’s. They’re not just a hockey school anymore. They’re a basketball school, too.”