Monday, March 03, 2003

Valpo, which earned the #1 seed in the Mid-Continent Conference Men's Basketball Tournament by capturing the regular season title, will oppose #8-seed Chicago State in the first round on Sunday at noon at Kansas City's Kemper Arena. The single-elimination tournament will be held March 9-11 with the champion earning the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The Crusaders (18-9, 12-2 Mid-Con) won their 8th regular season championship in the last nine years. Valpo won both games against Chicago State (3-26, 0-14 Mid-Con) this season - 80-48 on Jan. 18 in Valparaiso and 81-70 on Feb. 13 in Chicago.

Following the Valpo-Chicago State contest, other first round games include #4-seed Oral Roberts vs. #5-seed UMKC at 2:15 p.m., #2-seed IUPUI vs. #7-seed Western Illinois at 6 p.m., and #3-seed Oakland vs. #6-seed Southern Utah at 8:15 p.m.

The Valpo-Chicago State winner will play the Oral Roberts-UMKC winner on Monday at 6 p.m. in the semifinals. The IUPUI-Western Illinois winner will play the Oakland-Southern Utah winner on Monday at 8:30 p.m. in the other semifinal. Both semifinals will televised live on Fox Sports Net.

The championship will be Tuesday at 8 p.m. on ESPN2.