Pairings announced for the 2008 Horizon League Women's Basketball Championship

March 8, 2008

INDIANAPOLIS - The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Phoenix (17-1 Horizon League, 25-4 Overall) holds the top seed for the 2008 Horizon League Women's Basketball Championship after collecting its 10th consecutive regular season title.

The Championship is scheduled to begin on Monday, March 10 with two games on campus sites. The first League tournament contest will place the No. 10 seed University of Detroit Mercy Titans (3-15, 6-23) on the road against the No. 7 seed Youngstown State University Penguins (8-10, 13-16) at 7:00 p.m. The other first round pairing will feature the No. 8 seed University of Illinois-Chicago Flames (6-12, 10-19) playing host to the No. 9 seed Loyola University Chicago Ramblers (5-13, 7-22).

Quarterfinal action will take place at campus sites on Wednesday (March 12) before moving to the home venue of the highest remaining seed for the semifinals and championship game on Friday and Sunday (March 14 and 16).

Wednesday's quarterfinal matchups are as follows: (No. 1) Green Bay hosts the winner of Monday's Loyola-UIC game, (No. 5) Butler University (10-8, 20-9) travels to (No. 4) Cleveland State University (10-8, 16-13). In the bottom half of the quarterfinal bracket, (No. 6) Valparaiso University (9-9, 14-15) visits (No. 3) University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (11-7, 16-13), while (No. 2) Wright State University (11-7, 14-15) will play the winner of the Detroit-Youngstown State contest. All games will be played at 7 p.m. local time.

The final regular-season standings featured two ties, Wright State and Milwaukee for second place and Cleveland State and Butler for fourth place. Since the Raiders and Panthers split the season series, the tie was broken by the teams' combined record against Butler and Cleveland State. WSU earned the No. 2 seed with a combined 3-1 record against CSU and BU. The Panthers took the No. 3 spot based on their 2-2 record against CSU and BU.

Cleveland State earned the No. 4 seed based on its 1-1 record on Wright State, while Butler posted a 0-2 mark against WSU.

Free, live video webcasts will be available for the first-round, quarterfinal and semifinal tournament games via the Horizon League Network at www.horizonleaguenetwork.tv. The championship game will be carried on ESPNU at 1:00 p.m. (Eastern).

2008 Horizon League Women's Basketball Championship Schedule
First Round -- Monday, March 10
Game #1: (#9) Loyola at (#8) UIC - 7 p.m. Local (HLN)
Game #2: (#10) Detroit at (#7) Youngstown State - 7 p.m. Local (HLN)


Quarterfinal Round -- Wednesday, March 12
Game #3: Winner of Game 1 at (#1) Green Bay - 7 p.m. Local (HLN)
Game #4: (#5) Butler at (#4) Cleveland State - 7 p.m. Local (HLN)
Game #5: (#6) Valparaiso at (#3) Milwaukee - 7 p.m. Local (HLN)
Game #6: (#7) Winner of Game 6 at (#2) Wright State - 7 p.m. Local (HLN)


Semifinal Round -- Friday, March 14
Game #7: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner - 5:30 p.m. Local (HLN)
Game #8: Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner - 8 p.m. Local (HLN)


Championship -- Sunday, March 16
Game #9: Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner - 1 p.m. ET (ESPNU)