Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Valparaiso University will meet UMKC on Sunday afternoon, March 5, at 12 p.m. at the John Q. Hammons Arena at the UMAC in Tulsa, Okla. in the quarterfinals of the Mid-Continent Conference Tournament.

For the Crusaders and Kangaroos, it will mark a rematch of last year's quarterfinal contest in which UMKC upset Valpo 59-49.

Valpo (15-12, 9-7 Mid-Con) enters the tournament as the fourth seed but has dropped three straight games after falling 53-31 on Monday night at Oral Roberts. UMKC (10-17, 8-8) has won three in a row after knocking off regular season champion Western Illinois 70-61 in overtime on Monday.

The two schools split their regular season meetings, with Valpo posting a 65-31 win at the Athletics-Recreation Center on December 30 in the Mid-Con opener for both teams. UMKC won the rematch last Saturday (Feb. 25) by a score of 69-63 in Kansas City, Mo.

The winner of the Valpo-UMKC game will meet the winner of Saturday's noon game between top-seeded Western Illinois (21-5, 13-3) and eighth-seeded Southern Utah (11-16, 4-12) at noon on Monday. The other quarterfinal match-ups have #2 seed IUPUI (16-10, 11-5) against #7 Chicago State (12-15, 7-9) at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday and #3 Oral Roberts (16-11, 10-6) against #6 Oakland (12-15, 8-8) at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday.

The championship game is set for Tuesday, March 7, beginning at 12:30 p.m. with the game carried live on ESPNU.