Team Notes:

First meeting between the schools.

South Carolina Aiken is in the national semifinals for the first time in school history after posting an 85-70 victory over Chico State in Wednesday's quarterfinal round. The Pacers, winners of 15 consecutive games and 28 of their last 29 -- its only loss since the first of December came Feb. 1 against GRU Augusta -- have the most wins of any team remaining in the tournament at 33 ... USC Aiken held Chico State to 35.6 percent shooting in the quarterfinal matchup and was the only team among the eight playing Wednesday to hold its opponent to under 40 percent shooting from the floor ... The Pacers set a new Elite Eight record Wednesday with 10 blocked shots, while Alvin Brown tied the single-game mark with eight of them ... Brown is the national leader in blocked shots with 143 and at least one in 24 consecutive games. He has two games this season with 10 blocked shots and two others with nine, including the Southeast Regional semifinal victory over GRU Augusta. Brown's 143 blocks have tied the sixth-most in a season in Division II history and he is three away from the fifth place mark ... Ronald Zimmerman is one of the nation's top three-point shooters, having made 141 treys on the year at a rate of 45.3 percent. He is second in the country in three-pointers and his 339 career baskets from beyond the arc are the most of any player still active (Carson-Newman senior Ishmael Sanders finished with 340 treys) and with five more, will move into the top 25 all-time in NCAA Division II history ... As a team, USC Aiken blocks 6.4 shots per contest, the best average in Division II and also hold their foes to national-low 24.8 percent from three-point range... Paul Larsen ranks ninth nationally in rebounds with his 317 for the season, while Devontae Wright is tenth with 193 assists ... Not only do the Pacers do their share of damage from three-point range, they also get to the free throw line frequently. USC Aiken has attempted 1,031 free throws this season and made 717; the former mark leads the nation and the latter ranks second.

SOUTH CAROLINA AIKEN VITALS:
Scoring Offense: 79.9 (78st in Division II)
Scoring Defense: 66.5 (23rd)
Scoring Margin: +13.4 (10th)
Rebounding Margin: +8.7 (10th)
Assist to Turnover Ratio: 0.98:1 (157th)
Longest Winning Streak: 15 games (Feb. 5-present)
Leading Scorer: Ronald Zimmerman, 16.8 ppg
Leading Rebounder: Paul Larsen, 8.8 rpg

West Liberty's victory Wednesday over defending national champion Drury sends the Hilltoppers to the national semifinals for the third time in four seasons, as it currently holds the longest active streak of Elite Eight appearances with four ... Like its Thursday opponent, USC AIken, the Hilltoppers are seeking their first-ever trip to the national championship game ... 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 ... West Liberty leads the nation in scoring with an average of 101 points per game and have led NCAA Division II in that department for seven of the past eight seasons ... 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 ... Cedric Harris leads a contingent of seven West Liberty players averaging in double figures at 17.9 points per game, while also ranking sixth in the nation in steals with 77 and 12th in assists with 182 ... Meanwhile, Keene Cockburn has the third-most blocked shots in the nation with 95 and C.J. Hester -- a Capital One Academic All-America selection -- is 21st in field goal percentage (61.5 percent) and 19th in rebounds with 280 ... 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 1,015 three-point shots this season ... Should West Liberty reach the title game, it would mark 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: 101.0 (1st in Division II)
Scoring Defense: 81.8 (251st)
Scoring Margin: +19.2 (3rd)
Rebounding Margin: +2.7 (90th)
Assist to Turnover Ratio: 1.91:1 (3rd)
Longest Winning Streak: 16 games (Nov. 9-Jan. 25)
Leading Scorer: Cedric Harris, 17.9 ppg
Leading Rebounder: C.J. Hester, 8.5 rpg