March 5, 2001

MILWAUKEE - The UWM women's basketball team (12-2 MCC, 16-10) will play Wright State (3-11MCC, 6-21) in the opening round of the MCC Championship on Thursday, March 8. Seeded second, the Panthers will take on the seventh-seed Raiders at 1 p.m. at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, Ill.

Recently defeating Wright State, 74-52, in its final regular-season game on Sunday, UWM finished to share the regular-season title with UW-Green Bay (12-2 MCC, 20-7). Milwaukee enters the tournament as the second seed after tie-breakers with UWGB. Since both teams split the series this season, the next tie-breaker came down to which team posted a better record against the third-place finisher, Detroit. Since Green Bay swept that series and UWM lost one game to the Titans, UWGB gains the first seed.

Winning a share of the regular-season title is a first for the UWM women's program since entering Division I. The Panthers previous best of second place came last season, and now will enter the MCC Championship as the second-seed for two years in a row.

UW-Green Bay earned the top spot after beating Butler, 82-45, on Saturday in Indianapolis. The #1 Phoenix will meet the #8 Bulldogs again in the quarterfinals at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.

Tournament action will begin with UWM's game at 1 p.m. on Thursday, and will continue with semifinals on Friday, starting at 5 p.m. and the championship game on Saturday, at 5 p.m. The Panthers' quarterfinal game will be broadcast live on the internet at uwmpanthers.com, and will continue to be broadcast if UWM advances. All MCC tournament semifinal games and the championship game will be televised live on local channel 41. For ticket information, visit www.mccsportsnet.com or call the UIC ticket office at (312) 413-UIC1.