Billikens to Meet Saint Joe's in A-10 First Round Friday
March 1, 2008
ST. LOUIS - No. 11 seed Saint Louis will square off against No. 6 seed and tournament host Saint Joseph's in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Conference Women's Basketball Championship on Friday, March 7, at 5 p.m. (CT). The Billikens (10-19, 5-9 A-10) tied Rhode Island and Massachusetts for 10th place in the regular-season standings. The league's tiebreaker formula gave Rhode Island the No. 10 seed, SLU the No. 11 seed and UMass the No. 12 position. Saint Louis enters the A-10 Championship having lost four straight and six of its last seven games. The Bills will try for a repeat of their first-round outcome of last season when, as the No. 11 seed, they knocked off No. 6 Richmond 69-61 for the program's first conference tournament victory since 2002. SLU was edged 64-63 by No. 3 Xavier in the quarterfinals. Saint Joseph's (16-13, 8-6 A-10) defeated Saint Louis 65-44 on Feb. 6 at SJU's Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse in Philadelphia. The Hawks rebounded from a 2-3 start in conference play to win six of their last nine games, including two straight entering the tournament. As the No. 5 seed last season, Saint Joseph's defeated No. 12 Rhode Island 68-52, No. 4 Charlotte 76-64 and No. 1 George Washington 57-55 before falling 65-59 to Xavier in the title game. The Saint Louis-Saint Joseph's winner will face No. 3 Xavier on Saturday at 5 p.m. (all times Central). Other first-round contests on Friday pit No. 8 Richmond against No. 9 Duquesne at 11 a.m., with the winner advancing to play top-seeded Temple on Saturday at 11 a.m.; No. 5 Dayton against No. 12 UMass at 1 p.m., with the winner meeting No. 4 Charlotte on Saturday at 1 p.m.; and No. 7 St. Bonaventure against No. 10 Rhode Island at 3 p.m., with the winner taking on No. 2 George Washington on Saturday at 3 p.m. Both semifinal games on Sunday will be televised by CSTV. Should the Billikens advance, they would play in the second semifinal at 1:30 p.m. The first semifinal is slated for 11 a.m. Monday's championship game, which determines the A-10's representative in the NCAA Tournament, will be televised by ESPN2 at 4 p.m.
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