Senior Noah Kaiser's 3-point basket with 1:16 broke a 60-60 tie and the No. 1-ranked Tommies (29-1) held on to edge No. 12 Calvin (Mich.), 63-62, in Saturday night's NCAA Division III playoff men's basketball game before a standing-room crowd of 1,820 at Schoenecker Arena.

St. Thomas, which advances to the national playoff quarterfinal round for the third time in five years, closed out its home season with a 17-0 record. 

It was just the sixth 3-point basket of the season in 22 games for Kaiser, a forward known more for his slashing to the basket.

UST missed a 3-pointer with 24 seconds left to allow the Knights the chance to win on their last possession. After a time out, Bryan Powell, who scored a game-best 31 points off the bench, missed a 15-footer with :04 to go. UST's Zach Riedeman rebounded and was fouled with :00.7 left.

Riedeman missed two free throws, the second intentionally in an attempt to run out the clock, but Calvin was awarded a time out after the rebound of the second miss with :00.4 to go. Needing to go the entire length of the floor, Calvin's baseball pass hit the arena overhead scoreboard and caromed out of bounds to go down as a turnover. That allowed UST to run out the clock and take the one-point win.

The Tommies, who shot 52 percent from the field, overcame a 9-of-22 night at the foul line. Will DeBerg hit five 3-pointers and finished with 16 points. Erik Tengwall added 12 points and five assists. UST's defense also limited the Calvin starters to 22 points as it held its 22nd consecutive opponent under 70 points.

Calvin had a 33-28 rebounding edge and shot 47 percent from the field but converted only 4-of-10 from the foul line. Tim Snikkers added 11 points for the Knights, who had won 20 of their previous 21 games.

UST closed the first half on a 4-0 run and opened the second half on a 10-0 run to build a 41-26 lead. Calvin answered with a 29-13 run over the next 12:03 to take its only lead of the second half at 55-54 with under 6:00 to play.

Calvin tied the game 60-60 with 1:36 to go on a fast-break dunk by Tyler Dykstra. UST regained the lead at 1:13 left on Kaiser's open shhot from 18 feet. Powell made two free throws with 55 seconds to go to pull Calvin within one and set the stage for the tense finish.