The women’s basketball team left for Orlando on Wednesday morning as the No. 2 seed heading into the Conference USA Championship Tournament.
The tournament will be held on the University of Central Florida’s campus at the the school’s new areana.
As the second seed in the tournament, the Mustangs clinched a first-round bye and will not see any playing time until Friday afternoon. SMU finished its season with two road losses but tied the school record with 21 wins on the season, and had only eight losses.
SMU will face off against the winner between No. 7 Memphis and No. 10 Tulsa in an 11 a.m. tip off.
The Mustangs lead the conference with the highest scoring offense, averaging 74 points per game. UTEP falls at No. 3, posting an average of 71 points per game.
The University of Texas at El Paso is ranked as the top team after posting a perfect 16-0 record in C-USA and 25-2 record overall. The Miners will also receive a first-round bye, and will take on the winner between the defending conference champions, No. 8 East Carolina or No. 9 Rice.
The Miners made conference history, becoming the first team in league history to complete the conference season without a loss, winning nine games at home and nine games on the road. UTEP also holds the nation’s longest winning streak of the season, riding a 21-game winning streak upon arriving in Orlando.
The tournament will begin today, with game one starting at 11 p.m. central time. Day one will include four games between the bottom eight teams in the conference.
On day two, the top four teams will face off against the winners from the previous day. The third day will see the remaining teams play before heading into the championship game on Sunday, March 9.
Memphis and Tulsa will start the tournament today, followed by No. 6 Marshall and No. 11 Tulane. At 1:30, No. 5 Southern Miss and No. 12 UCF will follow, and the tournament will conclude with No. 8 East Carolina and No. 9 Rice finishing the first day with a 7 p.m. tip off.
Day two of the tournament will begin with the Mustangs taking on the winner between Memphis and Tulsa. At 1:30, No. 3 University of Alabama will take on the of the Marshall and Tulane game, followed by a 4:30 tip off between No. 4 University of Houston and the winner of Southern Miss and UCF.
Friday night will wrap up with a head-to-head battle between No. 1 UTEP and the winner of the East Carolina and Rice game.
Semi-finals for the tournament will commence at 2 p.m., with the either SMU, Memphis or Tulsa facing the winner between UAB, Marshall or Tulane. The other semi-finalist will be chosen from the winner among Houston, Southern Miss and UCF against UTEP, East Carolina or Rice.
The final game will take place on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. and can be watched on ESPN2. The winner of the tournament will automatically qualify for the NCAA tournament.
Information for all games is available on the Conference USA Web site. All games will be available on Gametracker and a live video feed. Semis can be watched on CSTV.
