This wasn't just a strong run or rally to close a game. This wasn't just a team showing a good kick down the stretch.

Unbelievable was the word used most often in the Moon locker room to describe the way the Tigers finished their WPIAL Class AAA quarterfinal game last night.

Here are the key numbers: 27 to 2.

That's what Moon outscored New Castle by in the final 61/2 minutes to come away with a 65-49 victory at North Allegheny.

"It was crazy," senior guard Jason Jacobs said.

True. New Castle did not score in the final 3:52.

"It's hard to believe," Moon coach Jeff Ackermann said.

It wasn't hard to believe that New Castle took a nine-point lead with 6:38 left in the game. After all, the Red Hurricanes were the No. 2 seed in the playoffs. What was hard to fathom was what happened from there. It was a finishing kick that had Ackermann close to kissing one of his players in a timeout late in the game.

"I really thought he was going to kiss Ryan Falbo after he hit the one 3-pointer," Jacobs said, with a laugh. "I was just like 'wo.' I turned my head."

So what in the world happened to let Moon (15-9) advance to the semifinals? New Castle (18-6) was in control and seemed on its way to winning its 14th game in a row.

"When you get some teams backed into a corner, they come out fighting," New Castle coach Mark Stanley said. "Moon did that, and I don't think we matched their intensity. I don't think we got one loose ball in the fourth quarter.

"I thought we were sharing the ball well in the third quarter, and, all of a sudden, we stopped doing that. All of a sudden, they got the momentum, and it snowballed. It's hard to explain."

In the final 3:30, New Castle had 10 possessions. Four ended in turnovers and six in missed shots. Five of the misses were 3-pointers.

"We just wanted to try and get the lead because we felt we had more playoff experience," said Ackermann, whose team has played in a WPIAL final four of the past five seasons.

But Ackermann had never experienced anything quite like this.

"I have not been in a game like that," he said.

Both teams took 13 shots in the fourth quarter. New Castle made two. Moon made nine. Jacobs was key throughout the game and scored seven points in the final quarter to finish with a team-high 21. Sophomore center Aaron Johnson scored nine of his 15 points in the fourth quarter. Falbo, a senior forward who was questionable to play because of an injured ankle, scored all of his seven points in the final quarter, including the loveable 3-pointer with 2:22 left that made it 56-49.

Senior guard Tyrone Steals led New Castle with 26 points. At one point from late in the first quarter to early in the fourth, Steals made 10 of 11 shots. A triangle-and-two defense, a 1-3-1 and a man-to-man couldn't slow him down. But Steals had a few turnovers and two missed shots during Moon's run.

Ackermann felt a key part of the game came with New Castle holding a 47-43 lead. After a missed shot, Jacobs had a breakaway layup, and New Castle's Nick Klein was called for an intentional foul. Jacobs made both free throws, Moon took the ball out of bounds, and Johnson scored on a back-door play. Sophomore Angelo Aletto scored inside to give Moon the lead for good with 3:12 left. After a turnover, Aletto made two more free throws, and Falbo's big 3-pointer came on the next possession.

"It was shocking because they had us on the ropes," Jacobs said.