WARRENSBURG, Mo. - Nolan Richardson wasn't about to go down without making a last stand Sunday night in the NCAA Division II South Central Regional.

Midwestern State's senior guard nailed five 3-pointers in the closing 1:18, but sixth-ranked Central Missouri Mules knocked down 12-of-14 free throws to preserve an 80-72 win at UCM's Multipurpose Building.

The Mustangs end a brilliant season at 25-7, while Central Missouri moves on to face Southwest Baptist (Mo.) in the South Central Region final Tuesday night at 7 p.m.

The Mules came out firing on all cylinders in the opening half as guard Alex Moosman connected on four of Central Missouri's nine 3-pointers in the opening frame to take a 37-29 lead into the locker room.

Central Missouri stayed on the Mustangs in the second half as it eased away for a 16-point edge when Joe Young hit a trey from the right wing to put the Mules up 60-44.

The combination of Moosman and Young accounted for nine of UCM's 13 3-pointers as the Mules would hit for 52 percent from beyond the arc for the game.

Moosman tallied a career-high 25 points on 6-of-10 shooting and missed just three of eight trey attempts, while Young connected four triples to finish with 17 points off of the bench.

De'Andre Byrd and Tremaine Luellen also hit a pair of 3s to finish with 12 points each.

Despite being pestered for most of the evening, Richardson wasn't about to let the season slip away without a fight. The Mules limited the 6-2 guard to a dismal 2-of-13 shooting night including a 1-of-6 showing from the 3-point arc.

But the first-team South Central Region performer hit hit five-straight 3s starting with a deep trey from the right wing with 1:13 to go. He would hit another with 39 seconds to go, then another with 32 seconds remaining, another at 19 seconds and yet another with 8.7 seconds to go before missing one at the buzzer.

The Mustangs were able to chip five points off of the deficit during the spurt, but the Central Missouri hit 14-of-16 free throws in the final 1:41 to keep the Mustangs at bay.

Richardson finish the game with 24 points which marked his 18th 20-point performance of the season. With the final spurt, he finished the season with the second-most 3s in a season in school history as he finished with 106 - just one behind Jerry Perry, who had 107 in 1995-96.

Richardson also became the first player since NAIA All-American Robert Harris to finish the season with better than a 20-point scoring average at 21.1 per game while his season point total of 674 rates as the 10th most in school history.

Richardson closed his two-year career with 1,103 points and 168 3-pointers which ranks 24th and fourth in program history.

Anthony Moore added 13 points, six rebounds and two assists while Trajinski Grigsby had 12 points and six rebounds both off of the bench.

Senior point guard Earl Rabb scored eight points, snared seven rebounds and dished out five assists.