Saturday, February 28, 2009

Valparaiso is the ninth seed for the 2009 Speedway Horizon League Men’s Basketball Championship and will open tournament play Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. CST in Dayton, Ohio against fourth-seeded Wright State.

“We are excited to be playing Wright State in the first round,” said Crusader head coach Homer Drew.  “But most of all, we’re excited to be playing anybody right now.  We’ve won three of our last six games, and even in the losses have been playing well, so we feel like we’re playing our best basketball of the season heading into the tournament.

The Raiders won both previous meetings this year between the two squads, winning 64-48 at the ARC on January 10 and 68-58 in Dayton on February 5.  Valpo is 3-2 against Wright State since joining the Horizon League prior to last season, while WSU holds the 7-5 edge all-time.

The winner of the Valpo-Wright State game will play the winner of fifth-seeded Milwaukee and eighth-seeded Loyola in Indianapolis, Ind. at 5 p.m. CST on Friday, March 6.  That winner would go on to play top-seeded Butler  The league championship game will be contested at the highest remaining seed at 8 p.m. CST on Tuesday, March 10. the next night at 6 p.m. CST.

As always, all the action can be heard live on the Valpo Sports Radio Network (WVUR, 95.1 FM, Valparaiso; WAKE, 1500 AM, Valparaiso; WEFM, 95.9 FM, Michigan City) and online at www.valpoathletics.com.  Live video and statistics will also be available through the official Crusader website.