*Saturday's NCAA Division II National Championship Game will be televised on CBS at 3 p.m. (ET)

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By Duane Cochran for FightingFalcons.com
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- Forty minutes.
 
It's all that separates Fairmont State and Northwest Missouri State from a national championship.
 
Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. (ET) with a national television audience watching on CBS the top-seeded Falcons and second-seeded Bearcats will square off on the hardwood here at the Sanford Pentagon to claim NCAA Division II men's basketball's ultimate prize – the national championship.
 
FSU and NWMS are the top two teams in the country and have been for much of the 2016-17 season. The Bearcats (34-1) are ranked No. 1 in the nation in the NABC/Division II poll, while FSU (34-2) is No. 3. Since Dec. 13 no team other than Northwest Missouri or Fairmont State has held the top spot in that poll.
 
The 34 wins are single-season records for both schools and the 68 combined wins by the two programs are the most ever for the two teams competing for a national title. It's the third straight season that this mark has been bettered, as the 2015 title game participants had 66 combined wins and last year's had 67.
 
Fairmont reached the title game by rolling past eighth-seeded Rollins, 86-68, in Wednesday's quarterfinals and then eliminating fourth-seeded and No. 2 ranked Bellarmine, 79-68, in Thursday's semifinals.
 
Northwest Missouri got there by disposing of seventh-seeded St. Thomas Aquinas, 79-70, in the quarterfinals and then eliminating third-seeded Lincoln Memorial, 79-67, in the semifinals Thursday night.
 
"I think it's great to have the top two teams in the national championship at this level," FSU coach Jerrod Calhoun said. "I expect a great environment. With Northwest just being four hours away they're going to have the home court advantage no doubt, but we wouldn't want it any other way. We've been one and two in the country all year so it's going to be a very high-level game. Northwest Missouri is a very good team."
 
Bearcats' head coach Ben McCollum, who is in his eighth season at NWMS, says he and his squad, whose only loss this season came against Missouri Southern State back on Feb. 18., are looking forward to the challenge of facing the Falcons.
 
"We're obviously very excited to be here and be in this game, but at the same time we still want to win it," McCollum said. "We've made a nice little run throughout and we've faced every kind of team you can face. Now, we're going to face as talented of a team that we've seen all year. It's one of the most talented teams I've probably seen in Division II outside of Augustana last year. We're going to have our hands full, but we'll compete for sure.
 
"Fairmont gets up and down the floor so fast and they shoot threes and make them. Their press is fairly chaotic. They can shoot from multiple positions and they play pretty free and loose. They average 11 threes a game and something like 96 points. That's a lot of points. They also play extremely hard."?
 
NWMS has recorded 23 of its 34 wins by double figures, but has been in several close contests recently. In the last seven games the Bearcats have had five wins by single digits, including a first-round 79-74 overtime victory over Upper Iowa in the NCAA Tournament and a 55-52 win over Southwest Minnesota State in the NCAA Central Regional championship game.
 
The Bearcats are led by 5-9 junior guard and national player of the year Justin Pitts, who averages 20.9 points, 5.1 assists and 1.5 steals per game. He's the leading scorer among all players in the Elite Eight and has averaged 26 points in Northwest Missouri's five NCAA Tournament contests.
 
"He's got great pace and he's one of the best pocket passers I've seen coming off of ball screens," Calhoun said of Pitts. "They set about 150 ball screens a game which is smart coaching because it gets your best player in a ball screen. He makes others better. He's a really good and special player. He's a guy you don't see too often at this level.
 
"We've got some good defenders, though, and we'll try to mix it up on him and give him different looks. We need to make him work for it. He's going to score and get others involved. There's a reason he's the national player of the year."
 
FSU, whose only two losses this season came against nationally-ranked West Liberty, have recorded 27 double-figure wins, including 13 by more than 20 points. Four of the Falcons' five wins in the NCAA Tournament have been by double digits and in all four of those victories FSU held its opponent under 70 points.
 
Fairmont State is led by senior forwards Matt Bingaya (18.8 points and 7.1 rebounds) and Thomas Wimbush (15.9 points and 6.6 rebounds) both of whom say they're focused and ready to go Saturday.
 
"Honestly this whole experience for me and for us has been amazing," Bingaya said. "As hard as we've worked to get here and as hard as it's been to get here, I feel like we deserve this chance because of all of that work. Until you've been in this position you really don't realize what it takes to get here.
 
"We've put ourselves in a position to achieve the ultimate prize. Now, it's up to us to go get it."
 
Wimbush agrees.
 
"Our job is not done yet," Wimbush said. "This is a special journey we've been on, but every one of our guys know it's not over yet. We've got one more step to take. We want to put that crown on top of the hill and say that we did it. We want to say 'We're national champions.'"
 
The appearance in the NCAA Division II National Championship is the first for both Fairmont State and Northwest Missouri and its the second time since 2014 that teams from the Mountain East Conference and Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association will meet for the title. In 2014 Central Missouri defeated West Liberty, 84-77.
 
The Bearcats are looking to win the Central Region's second championship in four years, while FSU hopes to end a nine-year drought for the Atlantic Region (formerly known as the East Region prior to 2009) in title games. The last team from Fairmont's region to win a national championship was Barton in 2007.
 
Northwest Missouri is also looking to become the first school to win the NCAA Division II national championship in both football and men's basketball in the same school year. In 1967-68 FSU won the NAIA football national championship, but its men's basketball team lost in the title game to Central State, 51-48.