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MW Releases 2012 Women's Basketball Championship Bracket

Feb. 29, 2012
Mountain West Communications


San Diego State (22-6, 12-2) won the 2011-12 MW regular-season title and enters the Conoco Mountain West Women's Basketball Championship as the No. 1 seed. The MW Championship will be held at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas on March 7-10.
UNLV (22-8) finished second in the regular-season standings with a 10-4 Conference record and will be the No. 2 seed. Colorado State (13-16) and TCU (16-13) tied for third place in the league standings with identical 9-5 records. According to the tie-breaking procedures, the Rams will be the third seed in the tournament while the Horned Frogs will be the fourth seed. During the season CSU and TCU split their series. In their regular-season series against the Conference team occupying the highest position in the standings, the tiebreaker came down to the teams' series with UNLV. Colorado State was 1-1, while TCU was 0-2, thus giving the Rams the tiebreaking advantage. Wyoming (11-16, 7-7) finished fifth in the standings, while Boise State (14-15, 5-9) finished sixth, New Mexico (9-19, 3-11) finished seventh and Air Force (6-23, 1-13) eighth.

Wednesday's quarterfinal games begin with No. 1 San Diego State and No. 8 Air Force at 12 p.m. PT. The meeting will mark the first contest between the two institutions in the MW Tournament. SDSU leads the all-time series, 24-6, including a two-game sweep this year. The Aztecs are 6-11 in the MWC Championship, winning the tournament title in 2010. The Falcons are 2-12 all-time in the MW Tournament.

No. 4 seed TCU meets No. 5 Wyoming at 2:30 p.m. PT on Wednesday. This will be the second meeting between the two teams in eight days and the second time in the MW Tournament. TCU won the only meeting with Wyoming in the tournament, a 63-55 second round victory on March 8, 2006. After splitting this season's regular-season games, the Horned Frogs lead the all-time series, 12-8. TCU is 3-6 in the MW Championship. The Cowgirls are 3-12 all-time in the MW Tournament.

The evening session of quarterfinals begins with No. 2 UNLV against No. 7 New Mexico at 6 p.m. PT. The teams are 2-2 in MW tournament games with UNM winning the last meeting, 80-52, on March 7, 2007. UNLV took the regular season series, 2-0, and owns the overall series between the two schools, 26-18. The Lady Rebels are 8-12 in MW Championship play, while the Lobos are 22-7 with five tournament titles.

No. 3 Colorado State will face No. 6 Boise State in the nightcap at 8:30 p.m. PT. It is the first season the Broncos will participate in the Mountain West postseason tournament. The Rams earned the two-game sweep in the regular season series which evened the overall series with the Broncos, 2-2. CSU is 10-11 all-time in Mountain West Championship play.

MW Championship Notes

The MW Championship has produced five different champions in its first 12 years. New Mexico is the only institution to win three consecutive championships (2003-2005) and five overall (2007, 2008), while former member Utah owns four titles (2000, 2006, 2009, 2011). Colorado State (2001), former member BYU (2002) and San Diego State (2010) each have one title apiece.

The No. 1 seed has won the tournament only four times in the last 12 years. New Mexico won the title as the No. 1 seed in 2004 and 2005, while Utah won the championship in 2000 and 2009 as the top seed. Colorado State (2001), New Mexico (2003) and Utah (2006) won as No. 2 seeds. New Mexico is a perfect 5-0 when reaching the title game, while Utah is 3-3, winning in 2006 after falling to the Lobos in 2004 and 2005. The Utes also won the crown in 2009.

Five current MW teams have reached the title game. New Mexico has advanced to the title game five times, while San Diego State has three appearances. Colorado State, TCU and UNLV have each been in the championship game once.

2012 CONOCO MW WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP PAIRINGS

Wed., Mar. 7
Quarterfinal #1d
No. 1 Seed San Diego State vs. No. 8 Seed Air Force
Noon PT

Wed., Mar. 7
Quarterfinal #2
No. 4 Seed TCU vs. No. 5 Seed Wyoming
2:30 p.m. PT

Wed., Mar. 7
Quarterfinal #3
No. 2 Seed UNLV vs. No. 7 Seed New Mexico
6 p.m. PT

Wed., Mar. 7
Quarterfinal #4
No. 3 Seed Colorado State vs. No. 6 Seed Boise State
8:30 p.m. PT

Fri., Mar. 9
Semifinal #1
Winner Quarterfinal #1 vs. Winner Quarterfinal #2
Noon PT

Fri., Mar. 9
Semifinal #2
Winner Quarterfinal #3 vs. Winner Quarterfinal #4
2:30 p.m. PT

Sat., Mar. 10
Championship Final
Winner Semifinal #1 vs. Winner Semifinal #2
1 p.m. PT

All games are Pacific Standard Time

TICKET INFORMATION
All-session and single session tickets for the Mountain West Women's Basketball Championships are now on sale at the Thomas & Mack Center box office, online and at institutional box offices. Tickets are also available by going to UNLVTickets.com.

TELEVISION INFORMATION
All seven Mountain West Women's Basketball Championship games will be televised in high definition. The quarterfinal and semifinal contests will be televised live on The Mtn. HD. The championship game will be aired live on NBC Sports Network HD, beginning at 1 p.m. PT. The Mtn. is available on DirecTV channel 616 (HD is 616-1), while NBCSN HD is on DirecTV channel 603.

GET INSIDE ACCESS TO THE MOUNTAIN WEST!
Full coverage of the 2012 Conoco Mountain West Basketball Championships can be found online. Visit Tournament Central at TheMWC.com/2012 for live radio broadcasts, live stats, updated brackets, box scores, cumulative statistics, post-game notes and quotes, live and archived post-game press conference videos, photos, blogs by MW Senior Writer Mick McGrane and more. You can also follow the MW on its social media channels:
@TheMWC | @MW_MHoops | @MW_WHoops | @MWCMick | @TheMWCOlySports | Hashtag: #MWBB
Facebook.com/MountainWestConference
YouTube.com/MountainWestConf