Albuquerque — The University of New Mexico women’s basketball team (22-8) will host Miami, Fla. (18-12) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Saturday (March 22) at The Pit in Albuquerque. The Lobos are the No. 6 seed, while the Hurricanes are No. 11.
The other first-round game matches No. 3 seed Mississippi State (23-7) against No. 14 seed Manhattan (20-9).
Mississippi State and Manhattan will play the first game starting at 7:14 p.m. Mountain Time. The Lobos and Hurricanes will get underway at approximately 9:45 p.m. Both games will be televised by ESPN2.
Saturday’s winners will meet Monday evening (March 24) to determine who advances to the Midwest Regional, which is also being hosted by the University of New Mexico March 29 and 31.
Monday’s game time will be announced after Saturday’s games.
UNM received an automatic bid to the field of 64 after defeating BYU 52-46 Saturday in the championship game of the Mountain West Conference Tournament in Las Vegas. The Lobos have won six straight and nine of their last 10.
Miami lost to Villanova 65-59, in the semifinals of the Big East Tournament.
Manhattan won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament with a 65-57, victory over Siena. Nationally-ranked Mississippi State fell to Tennessee 76-75, last week in the semifinals of the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
Tickets may be purchased in a variety of ways:
>online at www.golobos.com>at the athletics ticket office at The Pit>by calling (505) 925-5858>at Raley’s ticket outlets in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho and Santa Fe>at Western Wearhouse
Prices are $20 for adults and $10 for students for the first and second rounds. Midwest Regional tickets are $25 for adults and $12 for students. Groups of 10 or more can get a $3 discount per ticket.
New Mexico is making its second consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament and third showing overall. The Lobos have yet to win a game in the tournament, losing to Nebraska in 1998 and to Notre Dame last year.
UNM finished second in the Mountain West Conference this season with a record of 9-5.
Head coach Don Flanagan is 166-80 in his eighth year at New Mexico. The Lobos had never been to postseason until Flanagan arrived before the 1995-96 season. UNM is making its sixth straight postseason appearance, including Women’s NIT showings in 1999, 2000 and 2001.
The Lobos boast one of the great followings in all of women’s college basketball. After 17,578 fans attended the regular-season finale against BYU, New Mexico’s average attendance is 11,408, which is fourth in the nation behind Tennessee, Connecticut and Texas Tech. Average attendance has increased every year since Flanagan came to New Mexico. UNM was fifth in the nation last year at 9,229 a game.
New Mexico is 15-1 at home this season, which includes wins over nationally-ranked Texas and Utah. The lone loss was to Louisiana Tech.
Senior center Jordan Adams, the MVP of the Mountain West Conference Tournament, leads New Mexico in scoring (15.4) and rebounding (6.5).
“We are very excited to be in the tournament,” stated Lobo senior Chelsea Grear. “We don’t know much about Miami but we’re still going to go out and play as hard as we can and try to advance to the next round.”
Fellow senior Jordan Adams echoed Grear’s statements. “We’re excited,” she responded moments after learning the Lobos would face the Hurricanes in the opening round. “We don’t know much about them, but we will be ready to play on Saturday.”!