Pfeiffer’s 19-game winning streak, the longest in Division II all season, ended against, of all people, St. Andrews (15-14), a team it had embarrassed by 30-something during the regular season.

But that off night against the Knights didn’t cost Pfeiffer anything but pride and a tournament banner. The 14th-ranked Falcons (25-4) were granted a reprieve by the NCAA — a No. 2 seed as an at-large entry in this weekend’s East Regional in Charleston, W.Va. The Falcons debut tonight against Salem-Teiyko, a 74-65 winner over St. Andrews.

Some doubters expect a quick return trip for the suddenly not-so-bulletproof Falcons, who are minus team leader Tony Bailey, lost to a ruptured Achilles tendon on Feb. 22. Pfeiffer coach Dave Davis, however, begs to differ.

“I’m not worried about my guys,” says the fiery redhead. “The effort is going to be there in West Virginia. The effort has always been there. If someone had told me on Oct. 15 that we’d be 25-4 and getting on the bus for the East Regional as a No. 2 seed, hey, we’d have been thrilled.”

Now, Davis would be thrilled if people would forget the St. Andrews game and focus on the historic season the Falcons have put together.

But what happened against St. Andrews, you ask. The biggest thing that happened was, well, St. Andrews.

“We didn’t overlook them, but they made 12 of 19 3-pointers,” Davis says. “It was simply a case of us playing good, them playing great.”

Then there was the Queens factor. Queens is the team Pfeiffer downed right before it played St. Andrews. That win avenged a heart-breaking loss in the 1999 tournament.

“We used up our emotion on Queens,” says Davis. “Queens was our preseason motivation, our in-season motivation, our postseason motivation. Once we beat Queens, we couldn’t get pumped back up.”

Reserve senior guard Jason Buff says the Pfeiffer squad took a long look in the mirror after its loss to the Knights — and didn’t necessarily like what it saw.

“I think watching film of St. Andrews woke us all up,” Buff says. “We’ve gotta rebound better, gotta defend better. We’d allowed bad habits to creep in, but had been winning anyway. Now, we realize we have to get back to what made us special in the first place — playing harder than anyone else.”

“St. Andrews reminded us that we can’t just show up and expect to win,” adds senior forward Dusty Mason. “It was a weird game. We’re down 13 and still thinking there’s no chance we’re gonna lose. But we did. Maybe, it’s not a bad thing. A lot of us had forgotten how bad losing feels.”

The Falcons shook off their one-game losing streak with a scintillating practice on Monday — one that both Buff and Davis called the best of the year.

“The enthusiasm was back,” says Davis.

“It was great,” adds Buff, who somehow found his way to Pfeiffer from upstate New York. “The guys showed me they are still serious.”

But the competition Pfeiffer faces this weekend will be of a serious nature, too.

The Falcons, of course, would have loved a chance to take out their frustrations on St. Andrews.

“My pregame speech won’t have to be very long if it’s them,” said Davis of facing the Knights.

Davis will have to work a bit harder now that his team is facing Salem-Teiyko (27-3). The West Virginia school might sounds like a menthol cigarette, but it has a roster full of giants who can play.

“Teiyko was ranked No. 1 for seven weeks,” said Davis. “They’re huge. They’ve got a 6-9, 280-pound All-American and a 6-8, 230 guy to go with him. If it’s them, we’ll have to rebound and we’ll have to make them play at our pace.”

“But we’ve never minded making big boys run,” chuckles Buff, a stocky 6-footer.

There are six teams in the Charleston regional, three of them from West Virginia. But if the Falcons can win back-to-back (no easy task since they face contests more like road games than NCAA tourney games), they’re headed for the Final 8 in Louisville.

To a man, they feel they can. Any confidence lost against St. Andrews has been restored. The hunger is back.

“We’re not just going up there to be part of the tournament,” says Terrence Baxter, Davis’ mighty mite point guard. “We’re going there to win two.”

As if on cue, that’s when Davis hollers across at Buff. “Hey, we’ve won two in a row before, haven’t we Jason?” he barks.