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KY

courier-journal.com/sports

THE COURIER-JOURNAL

TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2013

| C5

KENTUCKY

Wildcats road
through UConn
They get No. 2 seed
in Bridgeport group
From C-J and AP dispatches

From left: Cardinals Bria Smith, Megan Deines and Tia Gibbs celebrate after their team was selected the
No. 5 seed in the Oklahoma City Regional on Monday. Louisville will open at home. MATT STONE/THE C-J

CARDINALS: Looking for a home advantage

Continued from Page C1

tournaments overall No. 1

seed.
Ive got to get by the first
two (opponents) first, Walz
said with a laugh. But the
possibility to get to play
against (Baylor All-American)
Brittney Griner would be fun,
at least for the first few minutes.
The first challenge is
MTSU, which Walz said has become a consistent winner under coach Rick Insell. The Blue
Raiders have won five consecutive Sun Belt regular-season
titles and have made the NCAA
Tournament nine of the past 10
years.
Hes done a really good job
of taking that program to the
next level, Walz said. Theyll
press. They like to run at times.
Their guards are very talented. They have a very good post
player in Ebony Rowe.
Its going to be a very good
game and were going to have
our hands full.
Ebony Rowe, a 6-foot-1 junior post player from Lexington Dunbar High School, is averaging a team-leading 19.9
points and 11.1rebounds for the
Blue Raiders.

LOUISVILLES FOE:
MIDDLE TENNESSEE ST.
Nickname: Blue Raiders. Location: Murfreesboro.
Record: 25-7, 17-3. Seed: 12th.
Bid: Sun Belt champ.
Last appearance: 2012, lost to
Vanderbilt in first round.
Coach: Rick Insell, 1-6 in six appearances.
Overview: MTSUs challenging
nonconference slate, including SEC
powers Tennessee and Kentucky,
didnt produce results in the win
column. But it did prepare the Raiders
for the league campaign. Ebony Rowe
(19.9 ppg) and Kortni Jones (16.4) are
this years leaders.
Best wins: Arkansas-Little Rock,
Western Kentucky.
Starters: Ebony Rowe, F, 6-1, Jr.
(19.9 ppg, 11.1 rpg); Kortni Jones, G,
5-9, Sr. (16.4 ppg, 4.5 apg); Icelyn Elie, F,
6-1, Sr. (12.9 ppg, 7.3 rpg); Janay Brinkley, G, 5-8, Jr. (1.5 ppg), Caroline Warden, G, 5-7, Fr. (2.8 ppg).

Walz was glad the Cardinals

got the seed he expected and
thought they deserved.
I was expecting to get a
five, but a 10 wouldnt have surprised, so were just thrilled,
he said.
U of Ls first-round game
will be on ESPN2, but Walz
wants Cardinals fans to watch
in person.

Its going to be a really exciting atmosphere, U of L forward Sara Hammond said. I

think itll be just like any
(home) game for us, and hopefully Middle Tennessee gets a
little shell-shocked.
All-session tickets to the
KFC Yum! Center games
two first-round matchups on
Sunday and the two winners
squaring off on Tuesday are
$32 for adults and $18 for children, seniors and college students.
Walz is hoping to fill at least
the lower bowl of the KFC
Yum! Center, not only to provide a loud home-court advantage for the first two rounds,
but to help Louisvilles chances
to host future NCAA and conference tournaments.
Having 8,000 for home
games makes a big difference, U of L wing player Antonita Slaughter said. We
dont lose at home, and I love
that about our fans. They come
out and support us, no matter
what.
Steve Jones can be reached at (502)
582-7176.

The University of Kentucky

womens basketball team is
headed to New York to begin its
quest for the Final Four.
The Wildcats (27-5) on Monday night were named the No. 2
seed in the Bridgeport (Conn.)
Regional and will face 15thseeded Navy (21-11) in the first
round in Queens, N.Y. at 12:05
EDT Sunday.
Were excited to be in the
tournament again, and to get a
2-seed for the second year in a
row shows the team accomplished a lot over the season,
UK coach Matthew Mitchell
said.
St. Johns (18-12), which is
seeded 10th, is the site host and
will play No. 7 Dayton (27-2) at
approximately 2:30 p.m. Sunday
in the other first-round matchup of the pod.
The two winners will meet
Tuesday for a Sweet 16 trip to
Bridgeport.
Mitchell said the team looks
forward to playing in New York,
where UK players Jennifer
O'Neill and Jelleah Sidney are
from.
Top-seeded
Connecticut
looms in the top half of the
Bridgeport bracket.
The Huskies defeated UK in
last years regional final.
It would be great to play
them again because it would
mean were in the final eight,
Mitchell said. Theres a lot of
basketball before that matchup,
but we would be very excited to
play in the Elite Eight again. It
would be a tough road because
there are some excellent teams
in our bracket.
The third-ranked Huskies,
who lost both the Big East regular-season and tournament titles to Notre Dame, will face
16th-seeded Idaho (17-15) from
the Western Athletic Conference on Saturday.
The Huskies are again on the
same side of the bracket with

KENTUCKYS FOE: NAVY

Nickname: Midshipmen. Location:
Annapolis, Md.
Record: 21-11, 11-3. Seed: 15th.
Bid: Patriot League champ.
Last appearance: 2012, lost to
Maryland in first round.
Coach: Stefanie Pemper, 0-2 in two
appearances.
Overview: The Mids are just the
second team in Patriot League history
(also Holy Cross) with three consecutive
tournament titles. Navy is led by a trio
of juniors, Jade Geif, Alix Membreno
and Kara Pollinger, who account for
roughly 60 percent of the scoring and
nearly half of the rebounds.
Best wins: East Carolina, Holy Cross
(3 times).
Starters: Jade Geif, F, 6-0, Jr. (13.1
ppg, 7.9 rpg); Alix Membreno, G, 5-9, Jr.
(11.4 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 3.5 apg); Kara Pollinger, G, 5-7, Jr. (10.8 ppg, 3.8 apg),
Chloe Stapleton, G, 5-10, So. (9.5 ppg),
Audrey Bauer, F, 6-0, Jr. (8.7 ppg, 4.8
rpg).

Notre Dame, setting up a possible third straight meeting in the

national semifinals. The Irish
have won the previous two and
have beaten UConn seven of the
last eight times the two teams
have played.
Im sure they want to play
us just as much as we want to
play them, UConn forward Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis said.
They are trying to prove that
they are the top team and were
trying to prove that we can beat
them.
The Huskies (29-4) are looking for a record sixth consecutive trip to the Final Four and an
eighth national title. But coach
Geno Auriemma said he feels
UConn cant be considered a favorite.
I think any time youre not
the number-one No. 1 seed,
youre an underdog, given the
success that Notre Dame and
Baylor have had, he said.
Connecticuts only other loss
this season was to top-ranked
Baylor. The Huskies beat eight
other Top-25 teams this season.
Theres still a gap there, obviously, Auriemma said. If
you look at the scores of our
games against all the teams that
won their conference tournaments this year, theres still a
gap.

NCAA WOMENS TOURNAMENT BRACKET

First Round
Saturday-Sunday

Second Round
March 25-26

Regional Semifinals Regional Finals

March 30-31
April 1-2

(1) Baylor (32-1)

Final Four
At New Orleans
April 7

Final
Final Four
At New Orl. At New Orleans
April 9
April 7
8:30 p.m. EDT

Regional Finals
April 1-2

Regional Semifinals Second Round

March 30-31
March 25-26

(1) Notre Dame (31-1)

Sun./7:40/Waco
(16) Prairie View (17-14)

Sun./5:05/Iowa City
(16) UT Martin (19-14)
Tue./Waco

Tue./Iowa City

(8) Florida St. (22-9)

Sun./5:10/Waco
(9) Princeton (22-6)

(8) Miami, Fla. (21-10)

Sun./7:35/Iowa City
(9) Iowa (20-12)
OKLAHOMA CITY
March 31

(5) Louisville (24-8)

Sun./2:40/Louisville
(12) Middle Tenn. (25-7)

NORFOLK
March 31

Tue./Louisville

(5) Colorado (25-6)

Sat./6:40/Boulder
(12) Kansas (18-13)
Mon./Boulder

(4) Purdue (24-8)

Sun./12:10/Louisville
(13) Liberty (27-6)

(4) South Carolina (24-7)

Sat./4:10/Boulder
(13) S. Dakota St. (25-7)
OKLAHOMA CITY
April 2

(6) Oklahoma (22-10)

Sat./11:10a/Columbus
(11) C. Michigan (21-11)

NORFOLK
April 2

(6) Nebraska (23-8)

Sat./6:35/College Station
(11) Chattanooga (29-3)

Mon./Columbus

Mon./College Station

(3) UCLA (25-7)

Sat./1:40/Columbus
(14) Stetson (24-8)

(3) Texas A&M (24-9)

Sat./4:05/College Station
(14) Wichita St. (24-9)
OKLAHOMA CITY
March 31

(7) Syracuse (24-7)

Sat./11:20a/Knoxville
(10) Creighton (24-7)

NORFOLK
March 31

Mon./Knoxville

(7) Oklahoma St. (21-10)

Sun./2:35/Durham
(10) DePaul (21-11)
Tue./Durham

(2) Tennessee (24-7)

Sat./1:50/Knoxville
(15) Oral Roberts (18-12)

(2) Duke (30-2)

Sun./12:05/Durham
(15) Hampton (28-5)

(1) Stanford (31-2)

Sun./5:20/Stanford

(1) Connecticut (29-4)

Sat./1:35/Storrs

NCAA
CHAMPS

(16) Tulsa (16-16)

(16) Idaho (17-15)

Tue./Stanford

Mon./Storrs

(8) Michigan (21-10)

Sun./7:50/Stanford
(9) Vanderbilt (21-10)

(8) Vanderbilt (20-11)

Sat./11:05a/Storrs
(9) St. Joseph's (23-8)
SPOKANE
March 30

(5) Iowa St. (23-8)

Sat./4:15/Spokane
(12) Gonzaga (27-5)

BRIDGEPORT
March 30

Mon./Spokane

(5) Michigan St. (24-8)

Sat./1:45/College Park
(12) Marist (26-6)
Mon./College Park

(4) Georgia (25-6)

Sat./6:45/Spokane
(13) Montana (23-7)

(4) Maryland (24-7)

Sat./11:15a/College Park
(13) Quinnipiac (30-2)
SPOKANE
April 1

(6) LSU (20-11)

Sun./7:45/Baton Rouge
(11) Green Bay (29-2)

BRIDGEPORT
April 1

(6) Delaware (30-3)

Sun./12:15/Newark, DE
(11) West Virginia (17-13)

Tue./Baton Rouge

Tue./Newark, DE

(3) Penn St. (25-5)

Sun./5:15/Baton Rouge
(14) Cal Poly (21-10)

(3) North Carolina (28-6)

Sun./2:45/Newark, DE
(14) Albany (27-3)
SPOKANE
March 30

(7) Texas Tech (21-10)

Sat./6:50/Lubbock
(10) S. Florida (21-10)
Mon./Lubbock
(2) California (28-3)
Sat./4:20/Lubbock
(15) Fresno St. (24-8)

First Round
Saturday-Sunday

BRIDGEPORT
March 30

Readers have The Courier-Journal's permission

to make photocopies of this bracket
Times EDT. Number in parentheses denotes seeding.
(All games on ESPN2 or ESPN3, except UK-Navy on ESPNU)

(7) Dayton (27-2)

Sun./2:35/Queens
(10) St. John's (18-12)
Sun./Austin
(2) Kentucky (27-5)
Sun./12:05/Queens
(15) Navy (21-11)