The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Earns No. 7 Seed For C-USA Championship
3/5/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 5, 2011
2011 C-USA Women's Basketball Championship Bracket 
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The UAB women's basketball team has earned the No. 7 seed for the 2011 Conference USA Championship and will face No. 10 seed Marshall in the opening game of the tournament on Wednesday, March 9. Tipoff between the Blazers and Thundering Herd is slated for 12 p.m. MT/1 p.m. CT at UTEP's Memorial Gym in El Paso, Texas.
The Blazers split the season series with Marshall, knocking off the Herd, 74-46, on Jan. 30 in Birmingham, Ala., before suffering a 58-57 defeat in Huntington, W.Va., on Feb. 17. The two teams have met once previously in the 2008 tournament held in Orlando, Fla., with Marshall, the six seed, earning a 71-69 overtime victory over the third-seeded Blazers in the quarterfinals.
UAB finished the 2010-11 regular season 15-14 overall and 7-9 in C-USA, which tied the Blazers for seventh place with UTEP and SMU. UAB owned the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Miners and Mustangs after defeating both teams during the regular season.
The Blazers have never been the No. 7 seed in the tournament. Last season, UAB earned the No. 6 seed and became the first sixth-seeded to team to make it all the way to the tournament's title game before falling to top-seeded Tulane, 62-54, in Tulsa, Okla. The Blazers also were the first team in C-USA history to face the top three seeds in the tournament.
Marshall brings a 9-20 overall and 5-11 C-USA record into Wednesday's contest. The Herd tied with Southern Miss for 10th in the league, but swept the Lady Eagles during the regular season to win the tie-breaker.
Last year, the eighth-seeded Herd exited in the first round after falling to ninth-seeded UCF, 59-57, in overtime. Marshall has never been the No. 10 seed in the tournament.
Houston, UCF, Rice and Tulane claimed the top four seeds, and each will have a bye the first round. The Cougars earned the top seed for this year's tournament after going 16-0 in league play. Houston will face the winner of the (8) SMU and (9) UTEP game.
UCF earned the No. 2 seed and will await the winner of the UAB-Marshall game. Third-seeded Rice will play either (6) Memphis or (11) Southern Miss, and No. 4 Tulane will face either (5) East Carolina or (12) Tulsa.
UTEP will serve as the tournament's host and the first two rounds of the tournament will be held at Memorial Gym. The semifinals and championship will take place at the Don Haskins Center. The tournament runs March 9-12.
