KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The hunt for a national championship begins at 10 a.m. ET on Thursday for the third-seeded University of Pikeville men's basketball team against sixth-seeded Grand View (Iowa) at Municipal Auditorium.

NAIANetwork.com will have a live stream of the game on a pay-per-view basis ($9.95 game/$29.95 tournament pass) and Z1075 FM in Pikeville will have the call on the air and online. There will also be live stats on the NAIA DakStats site and updates on Twitter @UPIKEAthletics.

This is the Bears' 11th NAIA Tournament appearance overall and fifth straight, extending their program record run that started in 2013. Six of the bids have been earned under head coach Kelly Wells, the all-time wins leader for basketball at Pikeville with 256 in 11 seasons.

UPIKE's (26-7) first-round opponent Grand View (Iowa) (20-10) is making its first appearance in the national tournament after finishing as the Heart of America Athletic Conference regular-season runner up. Denis Schaefer is in his 19th season at the helm of the Vikings and he has a team that likes to shoot from the outside.

Grand View has three players who have hit 50 or more 3s, including Kerry Green who has hit 58 at 36.7 percent. As a team, the Vikings hit at 35 percent from long distance. Four Vikings average double figures scoring, including Chase Mullen (15.5), Jijuan Hadnot (15.4), Nate Washington (14.3) and Green (15.3).

Thursday's winner advances to Friday's second round to face either No. 2-seed Columbia (Mo.) or No. 7-seed Lewis Clark State (Idaho) at 6:45 p.m. UPIKE had never faced Columbia in the tournament, but lost to Lewis Clark State in their only meeting in 2004.

UPIKE is meeting Grand View for the first time in program history and has a 4-6 record in first-round games. Once past the first round, the Bears are 7-3 combined the rest of the way. This is the Bears' first time receiving a No. 3 seed.

-UPIKE-