Team Notes:

First meeting between the schools. This will be the first time UCM has faced a school from the state of West Virginia in men's basketball, while West Liberty has never previously faced a school from the state of Missouri. This is the first NCAA Division II championship game since 2005 without at least one team that was the No. 1 seed in its region (Virginia Union vs. Bryant; Central Missouri and West Liberty were both the second seeds in their respective regions.

West Liberty's victory Thursday over South Carolina Aiken earned the Hilltoppers their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Division II championship game in its fourth consecutive trip to the Elite Eight; WLU was eliminated in the national semifinals in 2011 and 2013 and the quarterfinals in 2012 ... The Hilltoppers are already assured of leading the nation in scoring for the eighth time in the last nine seasons and with 81 points on Saturday, would average 100 points a game for the season for the fourth consecutive year ... West Liberty is the first team since the NCAA Division II Tournament began in 1957 to reach the national championship game as the nation's top scoring team ... In Thursday's semifinal victory over South Carolina Aiken, the Hilltoppers got 30 points from Shawn Dyer in a game in which they made only four-of-18 from three-point range, yet shot 49.2 percent overall from the field. It was the third game this year in which a Hilltopper reached the 30-point mark; Dyer had 31 against Urbana in December and CJ Hester scored 34 in a win at Glenville State last month ... West Liberty connected on 11 three-pointers, six by Seger Bonifant, in the quarterfinal victory. Bonifant, who is shooting 56.5 percent from long range, became just the third player in Division II history to have a perfect night from three-point range with at least five made treys; the only player to make more in an Elite Eight game without missing was Saint Rose's Ryan Halliday with seven in 1998 quarterfinal contest against Fairmont State ... It is 18-0 this season when scoring at least 100 points and has won 58 consecutive games when reaching the century mark; the last loss came in the 2011 national semifinal game against BYU-Hawaii -- but has not scored 100 points in its last seven games ... Cedric Harris leads a contingent of seven West Liberty players averaging in double figures at 17.8 points per game, while also ranking sixth in the nation in steals with 77 and 11th in assists with 187 ... Meanwhile, Keene Cockburn has the third-most blocked shots in the nation with 96 and Hester -- a Capital One Academic All-America selection -- is 20th in field goal percentage (61.6 percent) and 18th in rebounds with 283 ... With its win at East Stroudsburg to take the regional title, the Hilltoppers ended a 19-game winning streak by home teams in Atlantic Regional contests ... West Liberty, the top-ranked team in the nation for eight weeks this season -- one of only two teams to be ranked No. 1 during the 2013-14 season -- has made a national-best 410 three-point baskets this year and seven players have made at least at least one per game. WLU has attempted a national-high 1,033 three-point shots this season ... By reaching the title game, it marks the first time ever that a conference would have one of its team in the national championship game in men's basketball in its first year of existence. The Mountain East Conference began play as a league this past fall with 12 members, most from the old West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

WEST LIBERTY VITALS:
Scoring Offense: 100.6 (1st in Division II)
Scoring Defense: 81.8 (251st)
Scoring Margin: +18.8 (3rd)
Rebounding Margin: +2.4 (98th)
Assist to Turnover Ratio: 1.87:1 (3rd)
Longest Winning Streak: 16 games (Nov. 9-Jan. 25)
Leading Scorer: Cedric Harris, 17.8 ppg
Leading Rebounder: C.J. Hester, 8.3 rpg

Central Missouri returns to the NCAA Division II championship game for the first time since winning its only national title in 1984. On March 24, 1984, UCM defeated St. Augustine's 81-77 to capture the men's title, then the school's women's team won the Division II title a couple of hours later with a win over Virginia Union. It is the only an NCAA institution has won both the men's and women's titles all in the same season, the same night and the same location (Springfield, Mass.) ... The Mules bumped off top-ranked Metropolitan State 71-69 in the semifinals, as T.J. White took a pass from Daylen Robinson to score the game-winning lay-up with one second remaining after Metro State had tied the score six seconds earlier ... UCM had four players in double figures in the win, led by Charles Hammork with 14 points. Hammork is averaging 15 points a game in the Elite Eight, while Robinson, who had 28 in the Mules' quarterfinal win over Southern Connecticut State, is averaging 20.5 in the two games in Evansville ... During the Elite Eight, the Mules have ended two lengthy winning streaks, a 19-game run by Southern Connecticut State and Metropolitan State's 29-game winning streak ... Central Missouri is in its fifth Elite Eight all-time. Besides the 1984 title, the Mules fell in the quarterfinals in 1995 and in the semifinal round in both 2007 and 2009 ... The Mules shot 63.3 percent in the second half in Wednesday's win and the 28 points from Robinson were the most by a UCM player in an NCAA Tournament game since Sanijay Watts scored 29 in the South Central Regional championship game against Midwestern State in 2010 ... Central played in the only overtime game in the regional championship round, outlasting Northwest Missouri State 60-59 as Robinson made a free throw with two seconds left in the overtime period ... The Mules, ranked 20th in the final NABC/Division II rankings, shared the regular season title with Northwest in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association and was the sixth MIAA title under head coach Kim Anderson, who still ranks as one of the top 20 scorers all-time at the University of Missouri with 1,289 points. The six conference titles and 273 wins Anderson has accumulated at UCM are the most by any head coach in the history of the program ... Robinson is ranked 13th nationally in assists with 180, while Dillon Deck is shooting 62.2 percent from the field, the 16th-best mark in Division II. As a team, UCM is shooting 49.5 percent from the floor, the 16th-best average in Division II ... Central's three opponents in the tournament have shot just 36.2 percent from the field .

CENTRAL MISSOURI VITALS:
Scoring Offense: 80.5 (69th in Division II)
Scoring Defense: 68.3 (39th)
Scoring Margin: +12.2 (13th)
Rebounding Margin: +5.3 (33rd)
Assist to Turnover Ratio: 1.26:1 (47th)
Longest Winning Streak: 10 games (Jan. 22-March 1)
Leading Scorer: Dillon Deck, 13.7 ppg
Leading Rebounder: Charles Hammork, 5.9 rpg