March 14, 2011
Complete Bracket in PDF Format
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By Pat Salvas
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - Gathered in front of the television at associate head coach Greg Brown's house, the UCF women's basketball team erupted when it saw its name come up on ESPN's Selection Monday Special Presented by Capitol One. The Knights (22-10) drew a No. 13 seed in the Dayton Regional and will play fourth-seeded Ohio State (22-9) in Columbus Saturday, March 19 at St. John Arena.
Tip-off is scheduled for 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game between No. 5 Georgia Tech (23-10) and No. 12 Bowling Green (28-4). The Yellow Jackets and Falcons are set for an 11:20 a.m. start.
UCF earned the automatic berth into the 64-team NCAA Tournament for the second time in three seasons and fourth time in program history by winning the 2011 Conference USA Championship this past weekend in El Paso, Texas. The Knights knocked off defending conference champion Tulane, 85-73, Saturday night to take the program's second title.
Saturday's game will be played in historic St. John Arena, the one-time home to the Ohio State men's and women's basketball programs. ESPN2 will carry Saturday's game between the Buckeyes and Knights.
"We are excited to go back to the tournament," head coach Joi Williams said. "It's great to finally know everything, but now we really know what to focus on as we begin to start preparing for Ohio State.
"Every team wants to play on their home court in these situations and I think they (Ohio State) will have a good atmosphere with their home crowd. We need to just try and do our best to keep the crowd out of it and play well," Williams added.
The Knights will enter the tournament riding an 11-game win streak; the longest since the 1983-84 season and the second longest in program history. UCF has not lost since Jan. 30 and finished the year second in the C-USA standings with a 12-4 league mark before making the three-game run to the title at UTEP.
Ohio State currently is in the midst of a nine-game win streak of its own. The Buckeyes most recently claimed its third straight Big Ten tournament title with an 84-70 win over Penn State Sunday afternoon in Indianapolis. OSU is led by four-time Big Ten Player of the Year Jantel Lavender, who scored 23 points against the Nittany Lions.
The winner of the UCF-OSU game will play the winner of Georgia Tech and 12 Bowling Green in Monday's second round.