(March 23) -- When the NCAA released the pairings for the Elite Eight, one couldn't help to consider the possibility of a championship game between the top two seeds ... the top two scoring teams in NCAA Division II ... and a matchup between student and mentor for all the marbles.

That possibility came true on Thursday, as top-seeded Nova Southeastern and second-seed West Liberty earned a date with one another on Saturday for the national title. Nova Southeastern -- the national leader in points per game -- outlasted Cal State San Bernardino 94-87 to make the championship game for the first time in program history. The Sharks will seek to become the sixth team to complete a perfect season on Saturday after improving to 35-0, while head coach Jim Crutchfield will coach in the title game for the second time in his illustrious career.

Crutchfield's other appearance in the title contest came in 2014 when he led West Liberty to the championship contest, but it will be his successor and former player, Ben Howlett, who will lead the Hilltoppers into the matchup. West Liberty held off Black Hills State's late rally to make it to the finals as it seeks its first national championship as well.

Saturday's game will be televised live on CBS starting at 3 p.m., Eastern time from Ford Center in Evansville, Ind.

Additional tidbits: Nova Southeastern is the seventh team to reach the championship game with an undefeated record. Five of the previous six went on to win the national title. ... Since the NCAA reseeded the Elite Eight beginning in 2016, this will be the fourth time the top seeds will square off for the national title. The other three games were won by the second seeded team. ... Nova Southeastern is only the second team to lead the nation in scoring to reach the championship game; the other was West Liberty in 2014. ... With WLU making the title game, it will be the third time in the last nine tournaments that a Mountain East Conference will be in the championship game (Fairmont State was in the title contest in 2017). ... Nova Southeastern is the second school from the state of Florida and Sunshine State Conference to play for the national championship; Florida Southern played in three championship games and won title in 1981 and 2015. ... NSU head coach Jim Crutchfield is the third coach to take two different schools to the championship game, following Ron Shumate (Chattanooga and Southeast Missouri State) and Bill Jones (North Alabama and Jacksonville State). ... A win by Nova Southeastern would be the 12th national championship won by a team ranked No. 1 in the final ranking and first since 2019 when Northwest Missouri State also completed an undefeated season. ... The winning team will finish the season with no more than three losses; six of of the last seven title teams have had three or fewer losses dating back to 2015.

SEMIFINALS:

West Liberty 87, Black Hills State 82

West Liberty, the second seed in the Elite Eight, ran out to a 16-point halftime lead and then had to hold off a late charge by Black Hills State to advance to its second national championship game. The Hilltoppers led 47-31 at the half and led by 18 with just under 14 minutes remaining before the Yellow Jackets started climbing back into the contest. Black HIlls State, behind a 30-point effort by Joel Scott, closed the gap to three in the final minute before Malik McKinney made two free throws to put the game on ice. McKinney and Bryce Butler led a balanced scoring effort for West Liberty, who improved to 32-3 with the win.

Nova Southeastern 94, Cal State San Bernardino 87

Much like the first contest, Nova Southeastern raced out to a sizeable lead in the first half, but the Coyotes cut the lead to five before halftime and turned the second half into a dogfight for the top-seeded Sharks. Nova Southeastern never lost the lead, even as the Coyotes got to within three midway through the second half and to within two with four minutes remaining. The Sharks had five players in double figures, led by Kobe Rodgers' 21 points, to offset a 32-point performance by Brandon Knapper for Cal State San Bernardino and reach the championship game for the first time.

QUARTERFINALS:

Black Hills State 86. Minnesota Duluth 68

Black Hills State became the 11th school to reach the semifinal round in consecutive NCAA Tournaments as it made a late first half run to build a 13-point lead by the intermission and went on to eliminate Minnesota Duluth in the first quarterfinal contest. The Yellow Jackets shot 53.5 percent from the field as they got 25 points from Matthew Ragsdale -- who went five-of-seven from three-point range -- and 23 more from Joel Scott in the victory. MInnesota Duluth was paced by Drew Blair and Charlie Katona with 16 points apiece in its first-ever Elite Eight appearance.

West Liberty 95, New Haven 58

West Liberty turned the second quarterfinal into a rout in the first 10 minutes, racing out to a 24-4 lead by the midway point of the first half and never looked back. The Hilltoppers also shot better than 50 percent in their win, making 51.4 percent from the field and connected 16 times from three-point range. Four players scored in double figures for West Liberty, led by Zach Rasile with 14 points, while Quashawn Lane and Kendall McMillan had 12 points apiece for the Chargers, another team making its Elite Eight debut. The decisive win, the largest margin in an Elite Eight game since 1989, made the Hilltoppers the 16th team in Division II history to win its first four games of a tournament by a double figure margin.

Nova Southeastern 82, Missouri-St. Louis 75

The closest quarterfinal contest of the night featured the top-seeded Sharks and UMSL, who played within five points of one another for the better part of the game. An 8-0 run by Nova Southeastern broke a 63-all tie in the second half as the Sharks got 34 points from Will Yoakum to remain undefeated at 34-0 and become the ninth team to enter the semifinal round with an undefeated record. The Tritons got 15 points from Bowen Sandquist and 13 from Donovan Vickers as they were making their first Elite Eight appearance in 51 seasons.

Cal State San Bernardino 88, Lincoln Memorial 70

The Coyotes earned a berth to the national semifinals for the first time since 2007 by taking a nine-point lead at the intermission and continuing to build on that lead in the second half. Cal State San Bernardino, who got 22 points from Darius Mickens and 18 from both Mahmoud Fofana and Dontrell Shuler, held the Railsplitters to a 34.3 percent shooting mark and outrebounded them by a 50-35 margin. The win by the Coyotes completed a sweep on the day by the top four seeds, the fourth time that has happened since the tournament was reseeded before the quarterfinals beginning in 2016. Lincoln Memorial got 16 points apiece from Matthew Sells and Me'Kell Burries.