JACKSON, Tenn. – For the first two rounds of the NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Championship tournament, the Benedict College Lady Tigers have been focused.

Benedict held Florida Tech to a season-low 30 points and 18.6 percent shooting in an opening round matchup on Friday. Then the Lady Tigers jumped out to a hot start against Nova Southeastern and kept enough defensive pressure to knock out the three-time defending region champions in the region semifinals on Saturday night, holding the potent Nova offense to 25 percent shooting and 10 percent from 3-point range in the second half.

The Lady Tigers will face Florida Southern University on Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern for the South Region championship and a trip to the NCAA DII Elite Eight Tournament in Sioux Falls, S.D. Benedict, 29-2 overall, is the second seed in the region tournament and ranked 11^th nationally in the WBCA USA Today Sports Coaches Poll and 10^th in the most recent media poll, sponsored by D2SIDA. Florida Southern (26-5) is the fourth seed. They reached Monday's championship game by rallying from a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat eighth-seed Tampa by 10 points.

Benedict will be playing in its first-ever regional championship game. Florida Southern will be making its third appearance, but first since 1996.

Click here to watch Monday's championship game. Live stats are available here.

The key for the Lady Tigers is simple: Stay focused and keep up the same defensive intensity that has worked so well all season, and especially the last two NCAA tournament games.

"We're trying to stay focused. I think if we stay focused, and not get distracted as far as when they go on their runs, and stay in the game, then we're going to be OK," said Benedict head coach James Rice.

"That's the thing in these tournaments. You know you're away from home, and you tend to get distracted. You're ready to go home. I think that's my biggest thing, to keep them focused. It's a long tournament. We've played against a bunch of good teams. We've seen some good basketball, and after a while, it probably lays heavy on your mind, especially when you're away from home. My thing is to get them to focus and stay focused for two more days."

Terri Jacobs is averaging 14.5 points per game in the NCAA Tournament. Seniors Dorothy Brown, Regime McCombs and KaDeeja Vaughn have also stepped up in the postseason.

The Florida Southern Mocs are led by senior forward Mariah Harris, who averages 12.5 points per game and was named to the All-Sunshine State Conference first team and has scored more than 1,000 points in her FSC career. Senior guard Jensen averages 12.2 points per game and was named to the All-Sunshine State Conference second team. Camille Giardina was named the SSC Freshman of the Year. Shaquita Snow led the Mocs with 23 points in the win over Tampa.

Florida Southern averages 71.9 points per game, which ranks them 47^th in the nation. Over the past five seasons, Florida Southern is 42-5 when scoring 70 or more points, including 16-1 this season. The Mocs also rank 10^th in Division II in 3-point shooting percentage, making 38.2 percent from beyond the arc.

"They're a good team, probably one of the better teams that's playing right now," Rice said. "They're playing really good basketball. They've got a couple of good wins against some really good teams. They execute. When they played Tampa, they executed down the stretch, and that's why they came back. They're a good rebounding team, good transition team. They're the total package offensively. On defense, they're also sound. I think they're a really good team. It's going to be a tough one for us."

Florida Southern head coach Betsy Harris, who has turned the Florida Southern program around in just her second season, said putting up those high-scoring numbers will be tough to do against the excellent Benedict defense and their deep bench of inside players -- Deja Stallworth, Destiny Betts, Sarah Green, DaVontaye Merritt to go along with Jacobs and Vaughn.

"They're a great defensive team. They are so long and so athletic," Harris said. "Even if you get by one, you've got another tall one coming at you. So we've just got to figure out a way to score. Maybe after all these games of us missing (shots), this will be a time when we make, because we're really going to need to make shots on Monday to beat them. He's got a very athletic and talented team. We're going to have to bring our best game, our best game that we've played all year is what we're going to have to play on Monday."