After Augusta State's men's basketball team lost to Montevallo in the Peach Belt Conference Tournament semifinals, the Jaguars returned to basics.

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Since Sunday, No. 4 Augusta State has focused on defensive drills during its practices leading up to the start of the Division II Tournament.

"When you're winning, you don't want to change much," said coach Dip Metress, whose team watched its 11-game winning streak end in an 81-77 defeat last Saturday to Montevallo. "With the loss, the emphasis got back to something that's very important to me."

When the Jaguars play host to Brevard at 6 tonight at Christenberry Fieldhouse in their Southeast Regional opener, they will do so with a new perspective. All week, Augusta State has worked on 1-on-1, 2-on-2 and other defensive drills to shore up a weakness that was exposed last week.

In the Peach Belt Conference quarterfinals, Armstrong Atlantic State shot 54 percent from the field. Montevallo followed with a 65 percent effort from the field.

Augusta State (26-3) won the Peach Belt Conference regular-season title with the top scoring defense in the league.

"Since that loss, we made sure defense is the No. 1 thing," Jaguars senior forward Greg Hire said. "As the saying goes, offense gets all the glory, but defense wins championships."

"We've done a pretty good job this week of paying attention defensively," Metress said. "Hopefully, that will translate into success."

Senior guard Ben Madgen said his team, especially the five senior starters, is disappointed it didn't win the conference tournament.

"That was our last conference tournament," Madgen said. "But we let that one slip.

"Now, we know we have no second chances."

Metress said two of his main starters, All-Southeast Region forward Fred Brathwaite and first-team all-conference center Alex Smith, should be fine for today's game. Brathwaite injured his wrist and back in a hard fall three weeks ago at Francis Marion. Smith suffered a hand injury two weeks ago and had his worst performance of the year against Montevallo with five points and three rebounds.

"They should be 100 percent," Metress said.

Augusta State will face a Brevard team that's coming in hot after claiming a pair of one-point wins in the South Atlantic Conference Tournament semifinals and finals. The Tornados (21-9) are making their first Division II Tournament appearance in only their second year as a full-fledged NCAA member.

"We're awfully excited," Brevard coach Michael Jones said.

The Tornados are led by Josh Roper (20.4 scoring average), second-team, all-region forward Jonathan Whitson (17.8) and center Sam Carlisle (11.1). Brevard features six seniors on its roster, but Jones said Augusta State will have experience on its side.

"One of the big things Augusta State has in its favor is they've been there before," Jones said. "One of the good things about us is we don't know any better."