EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The Northwest Missouri State University men's basketball team relied heavily on the 1-2 punch of Diego Bernard and Trevor Hudgins in scoring a 61-43 Elite Eight victory over the Bentley University Falcons.
 
Bernard corralled his 13th career double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds, while Hudgins posted his 74th career 20-point scoring game with a 24-point effort.

Since the advent of the shot clock, Northwest held Bentley to an Elite Eight-low 43 points. The 43 points allowed is the fewest allowed by a Bearcat team in its NCAA Tournament history, besting the previous low of 46 scored by Flagler in Northwest's run to the national title last season.

Northwest (32-5 overall) took a 26-19 lead to the locker room. The Bearcats limited the Falcons to 25.9% shooting in the first half (7-of-27). The Bearcats hit on 39.3% of their first-half field goals (11-of-28). Northwest did not trail in the opening half. The Bearcats used a 7-0 spurt to take a 16-14 lead to 23-14 with 4:19 to play in the half. Northwest pushed its largest lead to 10 on a three-pointer from Mitch Mascari with 1:01 left before the break.
 
Bentley made one field goal from the 15:16 mark to the 7:30 mark of the second half as Northwest pushed the lead to double figures. Northwest used a 15-3 run to take a five-point lead and lengthen it out to a 17-point bulge at 47-30 with 9:35 to play. The Bearcats used a 14-1 run to take a 51-31 lead with 9:18 to play. The lead would not shrink below 16 points the rest of the way as the Bearcat defense continued to pave the way to the national semifinals.

Northwest found its offensive rhythm in the second half by shooting 55.0% (11-of-20 FGs).
 
The Falcons shot 30.2% from the floor (16-of-53 FGs) in the game. 
 
The Bearcats will face the winner of the No. 8 Black Hills State vs. No 1 Nova Southeastern at 3 p.m. on Thursday on CBS Sports Network.

NOTES: Northwest captured its 38th all-time NCAA Tournament victory ... Northwest is 38-20 all-time in the NCAA Tournament ... the Bearcat starting backcourt of Hudgins and Bernard improved to 15-0 in NCAA Tournament play ... head coach Ben McCollum moved his mark to 27-5 in NCAA Tournament action ... Northwest has won 15 straight NCAA Tournament games and 22 of its last 23 ... Northwest secured its fourth national semifinal appearance ... Northwest is 4-2 all-time in national quarterfinal games, having won four straight (2017, 2019, 2021, 2022) ... Northwest has won 53 of its last 54 neutral court games ... Northwest is 129-8 over the past four seasons ... Northwest is 191-13 over the last six years ... Hudgins has scored 2,787 career points in 137 career games ... Hudgins needs 32 more points to equal the MIAA's all-time scoring mark of 2,819 points set by UCM's Bill Fennelly (1977-81) ... Hudgins has scored 855 points this season, which ranks as the third-best single-season total in MIAA history ... Hudgins knocked in four three-pointers to take his season total to 161, which ranks as the second-most by an NCAA Division II player (Alex Williams, Sacramento State - 167 made three-pointers in 1987-88) in a single season ... Hudgins moved up to No. 5 all-time on the NCAA Division II all-time three-point field goals made list with 428 ... Hudgins needs three more three-pointers to equal the fourth-most three-pointers made (431) by Pfeiffer's Tony Smith (1989-92) ... Northwest is in the midst of a nine-game winning streak ... Bearcat sophomore Wes Dreamer drew three charges in the game.