ST. JOSEPH, Mo. -- In their last visit to St. Joseph, Mo. and the NCAA Division II Elite Eight, the Bentley University women's basketball team was stunned when South Dakota State used a buzzer-beating banked-in three-pointer that forced overtime and propelled the Jackrabbits to an overtime win in the national semifinals.

Therefore, it seems appropriate that the Falcons earned a return trip by stunning another team to win the NCAA Division II East Regional title Tuesday night. Bentley trailed Pace University by four with 38 seconds to play before senior guard and captain Kim Brennan (Locust Valley, N.Y./Locust Valley HS) took the team on her shoulders, scoring the final seven points as the Falcons claimed their 11th regional championship with a 64-61 win.

Bentley's reward was its first Elite Eight berth since 2003 and a matinee this Tuesday with Clayton State University (Ga.). The Lakers, from suburban Atlanta, enter the Elite Eight with a 32-1 record and a number two ranking in the latest USA Today/ESPN Division II Coaches poll. The Falcons, 28-4 overall with a seven-game winning streak, were 15th in the same poll.

Tip-off at the 3700-seat St. Joseph Civic Arena is 12 noon CT (1 pm ET), and the game will be webcast on www.NCAA.com.

Brennan, named the Regional's Most Outstanding Player, converted a three-point play on a driving lay-up with 32.4 seconds on the clock, came up with a steal, buried a go-ahead 12-foot jumper off the fast break with 12 seconds left, claimed a rebound and locked up the victory with two free throws with nine-tenths of a second remaining.

Brennan, number five on Bentley's all-time scoring list with 1,680 points, hasn't had to score the way she did a year ago when she put up over 17 points a game. With a talented group surrounding her, her scoring average is down about six points even though the team's scoring norm is up by about that many.

But Brennan has stepped it up in the postseason, giving coach Barbara Stevens' club 14.5 points (boosting her season norm to 11.3) and 3.8 assists a game. She's shot 47 percent overall, including a 5-for-11 effort from three, and has been near-perfect at the line, sinking 26 of 29 (.897). Bentley's all-time leader in minutes by a wide margin, she'll tie the school record for career starts (126) on Tuesday.

Two of the principle reasons for Bentley's increased scoring this season have been a pair of freshman forwards who joined Brennan on the All-Northeast-10 team, Lauren Battista (North Easton, Mass./Oliver Ames HS) and Jacqui Brugliera (Fitchburg, Mass./Wachusett Reg. HS). Brennan and Brugliera were both voted to the second team with Brugliera a third-team honoree.

Brugliera, who became a starter when senior forward Elise Caira (Wakefield, Mass./Arlington Catholic HS) suffered a season-ending knee injury in late December, has been the team's premier scorer and rebounder, both during the regular season and in the postseason. She averages 15 points and 8.8 rebounds overall, and has bumped the scoring to 15.8 in six tournament games, including 20.0 in the NCAA regional.

Battista follows with averages of 13.4 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.6 assists and a team-best 1.6 steals. With the exception of steals, all of those numbers are up this month in six tournament games, and two of her five double-doubles came in the NCAA regional.

The usual starting five for the Falcons also includes sophomore guard Courtney Finn (Winthrop, Mass./Winthrop HS) and junior guard Katherine Goodwin (Goffstown, N.H./Governors Academy). Finn, who missed last season with a knee, has averaged 11 points over her last ten games while shooting 49 percent overall and 42 percent from three. Goodwin provides nearly eight points a game with her 36 three-pointers second most on the club.

Among the players that 821-game winner Stevens can call upon off the bench are six-foot junior Shatasia Kearse (Framingham, Mass./Lincoln-Sudbury Reg. HS) and guards Meghan Thomann  (Andover, Mass./Andover HS) and Kelsey Roberson (Arlington, Mass./Arlington HS).  Kearse has had a strong postseason, netting 7.3 points a game on 57 percent shooting while also picking up 4.7 rebounds on average. Thomann has knocked down 41 threes, and Roberson has also given the Falcons key minutes in a reserve role.

The list of reserves also includes junior forward Lauren Massie (Fairfax Station,Va,/West Springfield HS), senior guard Caralyn Hart (Holliston, Mass./Holliston HS) and three-year co-captain Ashley Saia (Novato, Calif./Marin Catholic HS). Freshman guard Christiana Bakolas (Manchester, N.H./ Central HS) was a key part of Stevens' rotation before suffering a knee injury in the regional semis.

Forcing turnovers is a forte of the 2010-11 Clayton State Lakers and presents quite a contrast between the two clubs. Clayton's opponents have averaged almost 30 turnovers a game, the Lakers coming up with an average of 18 steals. On the other hand, Bentley has lost the ball only 14.6 times a game this season, and the Falcon opponents have averaged only 6.5 steals.

Clayton State has forced at least 20 turnovers in every game while Bentley's high turnover total for the season has been 20, a number they haven't reached since mid-January. Over the last ten games, the Falcons have averaged less than 14 turns.

The Lakers, making their third Elite Eight appearance in the last five years, opened the season with 29 straight wins before falling by the slimmest of margins in overtime to USC-Aiken in the Peach Belt Conference tournament earlier this month.

Clayton rolled in their regional tournament, posting wins over Francis Marion, Barton and Lander by an average of 22.3 points. That was slightly higher than the team's scoring margin for the season, 21.6. The Lakers average 80.5 points a game while giving up 57.9

A different player has led the Lakers in scoring in each of their last four games, and one has to go back to the second week of February to find the last time a Clayton player has been the team's top scorer in consecutive games.

Senior wing Teshymia Tillman leads the way for coach Dennis Cox's team, averaging 14.9 points. She's also second in rebounds (5.0 a game) and assists (95), and is one of four Lakers with over 70 steals. Junior forward Tanisha Woodard and sophomore guard Drameka Griggs also average in double figures for Clayton, coming into the Elite Eight at 11.9 and 11.0, respectively.

Woodward and Griggs, who usually comes off the bench, are 1-2 in steals, with each over 100 for the season. Junior guard Brittany Hall is a three-point threat (47-106, .443), and 5-foot-11 senior Breanna Fort is the top rebounder (5.6 a game).

In the other three quarterfinal games on Tuesday, 30-2 Metro State (Colo.) will meet 24-11 Shaw University (N.C.). Arkansas Tech and Michigan Tech will square off in a battle of 29-2 clubs, and Cal Poly Pomona will take on Northwest Missouri State.  Both of those teams are 27-4.

Wednesday's semis will tip off at 6 pm local time (7 pm ET) with the Bentley-Clayton winner facing either Metro State or Shaw.  That game will be on ESPNU and online at ESPN3, and the championship game on Friday evening will be aired on ESPN2 (and also on ESPN3).

TOURNAMENT NOTES: Bentley is 2-3 in quarterfinal games since the tournament went to the Elite Eight format. Overall, the Falcons have advanced to the semis seven of ten times, with the five quarterfinal games from 1989-93 all played at the Dana Center … After chartering out of Hanscom on Sunday, Monday's schedule will include practice in the morning, a visit to a local school in the afternoon and the Banquet of Champions Monday night … Bentley has won its last seven, 13 of its last 14 (with the only loss coming in OT at Franklin Pierce), and 16 of 18 since mid-January … The Falcons have improved on last year's victory total by nine games thus far … The representative from the East Region (formerly Northeast) has advanced to the semis seven of the last years … St. Joseph is the site of the Women's Elite Eight for the second straight year and the fourth time overall.