The Mountain East Conference boasts three of the top five teams in the most recent Division II national rankings.
None of those programs will be in Sunday's MEC tournament championship game.
Sixth-seeded and unranked Notre Dame played the role of giant killer for the second time in as many days, ousting second-seeded and No. 4-ranked Wheeling Jesuit 76-68 in the final game of "Semifinal Saturday" at the Charleston Civic Center.
Notre Dame will face fourth-seeded Concord in the title game, which will tip off at 3:30 p.m. Sunday. While Notre Dame eliminated Wheeling Jesuit and the nation's No. 5 team, Fairmont State, Concord jettisoned No. 1 West Liberty in the other semifinal.
The Falcons' senior point guard, Tyree Gaiter, scored a Mountain East Conference tournament-record 39 points in the win.
"This guy told me early on when he was a young buck he wants to put us on the map," Notre Dame coach Tim Koenig said of Gaiter. "[Sunday] we have that chance. We've never done this in the history of the school."
Notre Dame has the chance largely because of the littlest guy on the court. Gaiter, listed at 5-foot-7, is Division II's active leader in points scored with 2,398 after Saturday's outburst.
He made 10 of 15 shots - including 7 of 7 from inside the 3-point arc - and 16 of 16 free throws. It was his 11th 30-point game of the season, and he shattered the tournament's previous single-game scoring record of 33 points by Notre Dame's Lawrence DeArmond in last year's event.
"I'm just glad he's on our team," Koenig said. "He led us on and off the court. Statistically, non-statistical categories, diving on the floor, taking charges."
Gaiter scored 21 points in the first half as the Falcons (21-10) built a two-point advantage. He scored in a variety of ways: drives to the basket, pull-ups and floaters in the lane, a trio of 3-pointers and more free throws made (16) than Wheeling Jesuit attempted as a team (15).
"He played well; he's a great player," Wheeling Jesuit coach Danny Sancomb said. "We let him get a little too comfortable, too many good looks on 3s, and then he started feeling good about himself. The basket just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
"He's a hard matchup."
There were seven lead changes in the first half and nine for the game as the teams traded blows. Jesuit (28-3) scored nine consecutive points to flip a 15-9 deficit into an 18-15 lead midway through the first half. Later in the half, Gaiter was fouled on a 3-pointer and made all three free throws and then drained another 3 to flip a one-point deficit into a five-point lead.
Gaiter, an All-MEC first-team selection, scored Notre Dame's final 10 points, all within the last 42 seconds of the game, to seal the win.
Concord awaits in the championship game. The Mountain Lions beat top seed West Liberty 92-90 in double overtime. Concord beat West Liberty twice and swept Notre Dame (99-97 and 85-75) in the regular season.
"We've got an unbelievable challenge ahead of us," Koenig said. "The team that just beat the No. 1 team in the country, not once, but twice during the season."
Ryan Hickoff came off the bench to score 12 points for Notre Dame, while All-MEC first-team pick Will Vorhees added a double-double (11 points, 10 rebounds).
Justin Fritts posted a team-high 18 points for Jesuit.
The winner of Sunday's final will be the MEC's third different tournament champ in its brief three-year history, following the University of Charleston (2014) and Glenville State (2015).