STANDISH — The St. Joseph’s College men’s basketball team finished the regular season with three consecutive losses. The Monks were determined Tuesday night not to sustain a fourth.

Down nine points with a little over six minutes remaining in the second half, St. Joseph’s rallied to take the lead, then regrouped again in overtime to beat Lasell College 84-77 in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference quarterfinal game at the Alfond Center.

Senior guard Steve Simonds scored 38 points, 10 in overtime, to lead the Monks (13-13) into the league semifinals – 7 p.m. Thursday against Albertus Magnus, ranked seventh nationally in NCAA Division III, at New Haven, Connecticut.

“This means so much,” said Simonds, who also had four rebounds and five assists. “Every game, we want another one. It’s just every one’s a blast. And everyone on the team is buying into it. Just one more.”

Simonds, as usual, pointed out everyone else’s contributions to the victory. But Rob Sanicola, in his 12th season as Monks’ head coach, knew what Simonds meant in this one.

“As you can see, he’s turned himself into a great player,” said Sanicola. “Offensively for us we need him to do a little bit of everything. And he’s been scoring in bunches, so his confidence has gone to another level. And the other guys are finding him.”

Lasell, which beat St. Joe’s by 17 points a week ago, had built a 62-53 lead with 6:16 remaining in the second half with a combination of 3-point shooting and the inside power of 6-foot-7 Pat Marchand. The Lasers hit 13 3-pointers in the game, with Scott Arsenault and Richard O’Brien each hitting four and Marchand getting 18 points and nine rebounds.

But the Monks put together a 13-2 run to take the lead on a three-point play by freshman Quinn Richardson-Newton, who took a back-door pass from Simonds for a layup and subsequent foul shot, making it 66-64 with 56.5 seconds remaining.

Marchand – at least three inches taller than any Monk on the court – tied the game with a power move inside. Then Simonds hit a spinning jumper in the lane with 5.3 seconds left for a 68-66 St. Joe’s lead.

Lasell’s Mike Vallone was fouled with 0.2 seconds left, but injured his right ankle and had to come out. So the Monks could chose the Laser player to take his free throws. They picked Jeremy Daniel, a 37 percent foul shooter. Daniel, a senior guard, swished both and the game headed to overtime.

“We were very positive,” said Simonds. “I think we were finally in a groove, we were getting the looks we wanted, we were playing the defense we wanted. So we had a very positive outlook heading into overtime.”

Lasell got the early lead, 71-69, on another 3-pointer by Arsenault, but Richardson-Newton (10 points, nine rebounds) scored on another back-door cut from Simonds, who then hit back-to-back drives and St. Joe’s had a 75-71 lead.

Lasell was back within two when Simonds scored on a drive.

Then St. Joe’s came up with a defensive stop when the ball bounced to center court, and the Monks’ Andrew Ruffen dove to the floor and hit the ball to Craig Luschenat, who passed ahead to Zach Blodgett for a layup and an 81-75 lead with 26 seconds left.

“That was a big play,” said Blodgett, who scored 19 points, 12 in the second half. “That sealed it.”

Sanicola was simply pleased with how his young team kept its composure late in the game.

“Every day they’ve come back,” said Sanicola. “They haven’t worried about the record, they’ve worried about the journey and what they’ve done every day. And that’s what I’m most proud of.”

The Monks certainly gained a lot of confidence with the win.

“It feels great,” said Blodgett. “It feels like we can beat anybody after that.”