March 8, 2003
LAS VEGAS - The UNLV men's basketball team has earned the fourth seed in next week's Mountain West Conference Tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center set for Thursday-Saturday, March 13-15.
UNLV (19-9, 8-6 MWC) will face fifth-seeded San Diego State (15-12, 6-8 MWC) in the first round on Thursday, March 13 at 9:00 p.m. PST. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN.
UNLV concluded its regular season Saturday with an 83-72 win over San Diego State at the Thomas & Mack Center. This year will mark the second straight season that UNLV will face the team it closed the regular season with in the MWC Tournament's first round.
Last year UNLV defeated New Mexico 91-82 in its regular season finale, then defeated the Lobos 120-117 in double overtime in the tournament's first round.
This year's first round game for the Runnin' Rebels not only will be a rematch of Saturday's game, but will also pit the two finalists from last year's tournament. San Diego State won that game 78-75 to earn the conference's automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament. UNLV went on to the NIT and advanced to the second round.
UNLV has swept the season series with San Diego State this year with a 79-64 win in San Diego on Feb. 11 and the win on Saturday. UNLV holds a 25-6 all-time series advantage over the Aztecs.
The Runnin' Rebels are 5-1 all-time in MWC Tournament play and have reached the title game in both tournaments they participated in. San Diego State advanced past the quarterfinals last year for the first time and holds an all-time MWC Tournament record of 3-2.
Single session tickets for the Mountain West Conference Men's Basketball Tournament will go on sale at 10 a.m. PST on Monday, March 10 at the Thomas & Mack Center box office. Lower level tickets are $30 per session and upper level tickets are $19. Call (866) 388-3267 or (702) 739-3267 to order by phone.
The full 2003 EAS Mountain West Conference Men's Basketball Championship schedule follows:
March 13-15 (Thursday-Saturday)Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, Nevada
QuarterfinalsMarch 13 (Thursday)Game 1 - No. 2 BYU vs. No. 7 New Mexico - 12 p.m. - ESPN+PlusGame 2 - No. 3 Wyoming vs. No. 6 Colorado State - 2:30 p.m. - ESPN+PlusGame 3 - No. 1 Utah vs. No. 8 Air Force - 6 p.m. - ESPN+PlusGame 4 - No. 4 UNLV vs. No. 5 San Diego State - 9 p.m. - ESPN
SemifinalsMarch 14 (Friday)Game 5 - Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2 - 6 p.m. - ESPN+PlusGame 6 - Winner Game 3 vs. Game 4 Winner - 9 p.m. - ESPN
FinalMarch 15 (Saturday)Game 5 Winner vs. Game 6 Winner - 7 p.m. - ESPN
