WALTHAM, Mass. – After averaging 76.5 points and shooting 53 percent from the field in the first two rounds, the Bentley University Falcons will face a team known for defense when it hosts Dowling College Monday night at 7 pm in the NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Championship, with a trip to the Elite Eight in San Antonio awaiting the winner.

Tip-off at the Dana Center is set for 7 pm.

Top-seeded Bentley, 30-1, advanced with wins over LIU Post, 68-57, and Holy Family, 85-56. Dowling, 27-3 and the number three-seed, gave up a total of 96 points while besting New York Institute of Technology, 62-51, and Stonehill College, 57-45, in its first two NCAA games.

The two programs have distinctly different postseason histories. Bentley is looking for a third straight Elite Eight trip, and 13th since 1989, while Dowling had never won an NCAA tournament game before Friday.

Bentley is in the regional title game for the 23rd time, including the 19th time in the last 26 years. Coach Barbara Stevens has led the Falcons to a 12-5 record in Sweet 16 games since 1989, and her program is 10-1 in regional finals since 1990 when playing the decisive game at the Dana Center, a building where Bentley has won 28 straight overall and its last 11 NCAA tournament games, a run that started in 2003.

Junior forwards Lauren Battista (North Easton/Oliver Ames HS) and Jacqui Brugliera (Fitchburg/Wachusett Reg. HS), both of whom are expected to make their 12th career NCAA tournament starts on Monday, have powered a Bentley team that starts five players all hailing from within an hour of campus. The duo, in the first two NCAA games this weekend, have made a combined 33 of 47 shots, a remarkable accuracy mark of .702

Battista has been the regional's top scorer through two rounds with 27 against LIU Post and 21 in the Holy Family game.  The 48 points has put her within four of 1,500 for her career, and the 2012 consensus All-America made 21 of 30 shots in the two games, including two of three from downtown.

Brugliera had a .706 field goal percentage in the two games while averaging 14.5 points. She had 19 in only 14 minutes Saturday, including seven before the game was 90 seconds old.

Those two are joined in Stevens' usual starting five by junior point guard Christiana Bakolas (Manchester, N.H./Central HS) and senior guards Courtney Finn (Winthrop/Winthrop HS) and Kelsey Roberson (Arlington/Arlington Catholic HS). Bakolas has taken her game to the next level in the postseason, averaging 10.4 points, 6.2 assists and 2.4 steals while making 60 percent of her shots in five games.

Finn, Bentley's top scorer during the regular season when she was a first-team All-Conference choice, has a team-best 7.0 rebound average in addition to a 13.8 scoring norm. Roberson leads the Falcons in threes with her 68 exceeded only four times in program history

Stevens received contributions from a number of players off the bench in Saturday's game with senior forward Caleigh Crowell (Harwich/Worcester Academy) coming within a rebound of a double-double (10 points, nine rebounds), freshman guard Jane White (Amherst, N.H./Souhegan HS) hitting a pair of threes for the second straight game and junior forward Tyler Parker Kimball (New Britain, Conn./New Britain HS) grabbing ten rebounds in 16 minutes.

Bentley has averaged 76 points and shot 45 percent over the last three months, scoring less than 65 only once, that in a 40-point victory over Saint Anselm.  In sharp contrast, they'll be facing a Joe Pellicane-coached team that is the stingiest in Division II, giving up only 47.6 points a game while holding the opposition to a .309 shooting mark. Only one team has scored as many as 60 against the Golden Lions, and that was Southern Connecticut opening day in one of only three DC losses (70-68).

Dowling, which owns a 12-game winning streak, is led by seniors Danielle Wilson, Brittany Griner's predecessor at center at Baylor, and Connie Simmons, whose grandfather of the same name was a member of the original Boston Celtics back in 1946-47.

Wilson, a six-foot-three post, had a dominating performance in the Golden Lions' first round win over NYIT, with 23 points and 22 rebounds. She also put up a double-double in the semis and is averaging 17 points, 11.1 rebounds and 2.8 blocks for the season.

Simmons has averaged 17 points during the NCAAs, and for the season, gives Dowling 11.4 points and 5.6 rebounds a game.  Christine Vermelle, a sophomore guard who has played all but 22 seconds of the first two games, has averaged 10 points in the tournament.

Bentley and Dowling squared off down on Long Island in mid-December with the Falcons closing with a 10-3 run over the final three minutes to pull out a 59-54 win. A 13-8 edge in free throws made proved to be the difference, with the Falcons receiving 16 points and 11 rebounds from Finn. Simmons had 16 for Dowling, and Wilson grabbed 12 rebounds.

All-time, the Falcons lead the series 9-1.

The Elite Eight will begin Tuesday, March 26 with the East Region winner taking on the South Central survivor,  30-1 Colorado Mesa against 26-5 Midwestern State.