Evansville, Ind. — Will Yoakum scored 31 points, Dallas Graziani added 24 points, nine assists and three steals and top-ranked Nova Southeastern beat West Liberty 111-101 on Saturday to win the first NCAA Division II national championship in program history.

“They're special," Nova Southeastern coach Jim Crutchfield said, “because they're 36-0.”

The Sharks (36-0), who went 33-1 last season with their lone loss coming in the Elite 8, became just the sixth undefeated team to win the title, joining Northwest Missouri State (38-0 in 2018-19, the first of three straight championships), Findlay (36-0 in 2008-09), Fort Hays State (34-0 in 1995-96), Cal State Bakersfield (33-0 in 1992-93) and Evansville (29-0 in 1964-65).

RJ Sunahara fouled out with about five minutes left and finished with 28 points on 12-of-17 shooting for Nova Southeastern and Kobe Rodgers added 13 points and seven rebounds.

Bryce Butler led West Liberty (33-4) with 32 points and nine rebounds. Christian Montague hit 5 of 7 from 3-point range and finished with 19 points, Steve Cannady and Zach Rasile scored 11 apiece and Chaz Hinds added 10 points.

Sunahara made a layup to open the scoring about a minute into the game, Graziani scored to make it 16-6 with 15:23 left in the first half and Nova Southeastern never trailed.

The Sharks, who went into the game leading Divi-sion II in scoring (102.5 per game), set the record for most points by a team in an NCAA men's or women's championship game at any division.

Sunahara scored 20 first-half points on 9-of-11 shooting, Yoakum made 6 of 7 from the field to score 15 points and Graziani scored 14 points with seven assists as the Sharks took a 55-48 lead into intermission. It was the highest-scoring half in D-II championship history.

West Liberty was called for three flagrant fouls and two technical fouls. Ben Sarson was called for a Flagrant 2 foul and ejected after he elbowed Yoakum — who played four seasons for the Hilltoppers before transferring to Nova Southeastern —- on a box out early in the second half. Sarson, a 6-foot-6 sophomore, started each of the 35 games in which he appeared this season, averaging 10.5 points and 4.4 re-bounds.

The Hilltoppers' Malik McKinney fouled out midway through the second half and then was assessed a technical foul and Montague was called for technical with 8:15 to play.