Regional champions, Drury University will face Bentley in the Elite Eight, tonight. (photo/Drury Panthers.com)

Regional champions, Drury University will face Bentley in the Elite Eight, tonight. (photo/Drury Panthers.com)

After the Drury University women’s basketball team won the NCAA-II Midwest Regional on their home court in Springfield, the Drury Lady Panthers will now face the nation’s top-ranked team in the Elite Eight, which starts tonight in Erie, PA. Coach Steve Huber’s Lady Panthers (27-3) will face No. 1 Bentley (32-0).

In other quarterfinal matchups, Limestone (27-5) will play West Texas A&M (30-2) at 11 a.m. (CT), Nova Southeastern (28-4) will square off against Concordia-St. Paul (28-8) at 1:30 p.m., and Cal Poly-Pomona (25-6) will face Edinboro (27-5) at 5 p.m.

Semifinals will be played on Wednesday, March 26, with the NCAA-II championship game will tip off at 6 p.m. on Friday, March 28.

Bentley, from Waltham, Mass. (a Boston suburb), is in the Elite Eight for the third time in the last four years after defeating LIU Post 83-62 in the East Regional title game on Monday night. The Falcons are coached by Barbara Stevens, who has won 914 games in her 28-year career, the winningest coach in D-II history and a three-time national coach of the year selection.

The Lady Panthers, ranked sixth in the latest WBCA/USA TODAY Top 25 Poll, are making their third trip to the NCAA-II Elite Eight, with the others coming in 2004 (national runner-up) and 2007 (lost in the quarterfinals). Drury defeated sixth-seed Wayne State 99-63 in the Midwest Regional title game on Monday night at the O’Reilly Family Event Center.