March 8, 2003
LAS VEGAS - The fourth-seeded UNLV women's basketball team will take on fifth-seeded Brigham Young in first round action of the 2003 EAS Mountain West Conference Women's Basketball Championship to be held on March 12-15 at the Thomas & Mack Center.
The contest will be a rematch of last year's MWC championship game in which BYU defeated UNLV, 61-46, to earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Both teams went on to postseason play in 2001-02 and will meet again on Wednesday, March 12 at 2:30 p.m.
The defending champion Cougars are 7-2 in MWC tournaments, including an undefeated 2-0 mark versus the Lady Rebels. A tiebreaker determined the No. 3, 4 and 5 seeds as Colorado State (17-11, 8-6), UNLV (17-10, 8-6) and BYU (17-10, 8-6) finished with identical league records and each split with the other two tied teams during the regular season.
The Rams solidified the No. 3 seed by virtue of their upset win over top-seeded Utah (22-5, 12-2) on Feb. 13. UNLV and BYU each lost twice to the Utes, but the Lady Rebels held the advantage over the Cougars by sweeping Wyoming. BYU split with the Cowgirls receiving the No. 5 seed.
New Mexico (19-8, 9-5) earned the No. 2 seed, while Wyoming (17-10, 7-7), San Diego State (9-17, 3-11) and Air Force (7-20, 1-13) rounded out the No. 6-8 spots in the tournament bracket. For ticket information, visit www.unlvtickets.com or call (702) 739-FANS.
2003 EAS MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 12-15, 2003at Thomas & Mack CenterLas Vegas, Nev.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12 (All Times PST)Quarterfinal Game #1 No. 1 Utah vs. No. 8 Air Force at noon MWC-TVQuarterfinal Game #2 No. 4 UNLV vs. No. 5 BYU at 2:30 p.m. MWC-TVQuarterfinal Game #3 No. 2 New Mexico vs. No. 7 San Diego State at 6 p.m. MWC-TVQuarterfinal Game #4 No. 3 Colorado State vs. No. 6 Wyoming at 8:30 p.m. MWC-TV
FRIDAY, MARCH 14Semifinal Game #5 at noon MWC-TVSemifinal Game #6 at 2:30 p.m. MWC-TV
SATURDAY, MARCH 15Championship Game at 3:30 p.m. ESPN2 (9:30 p.m.)
