MEAC Women’s Bracket Set For 2012 Basketball Tournament

NORFOLK, Virginia -- The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) announced its women's pairings for the 2012 MEAC Basketball Tournament, March 5-10 at the Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The reigning MEAC Tournament champion Hampton Lady Pirates will enter the tournament as the top seed after concluding the regular-season with a 15-1 mark in MEAC play.

Hampton earned the tournament first-round bye and will open up play on Wednesday, March 7 at noon. They will face the winner of the No. 8 Bethune-Cookman vs. No. 9 Norfolk State matchup slated for Monday, March 5 at 11 a.m.

Monday's games will continue with No. 5 North Carolina A&T vs. No. 12 Morgan State at 1:30 p.m. and No. 4 Coppin State vs. No. 13 North Carolina Central at 4 p.m. No. 6 Maryland Eastern Shore (8-8) will take on Savannah State at 6:30 p.m. SSU earned the tiebreaker over MSU to secure the No. 11 spot.

No. 7 South Carolina State (7-9) won the tiebreaker over Bethune-Cookman and will match up against No. 10 Delaware State (4-12) at 9 p.m. in the final game of the day.

The Howard Lady Bison and Florida A&M Lady Rattlers both finished the season with a 14-2 mark in MEAC play and will share the conference's runners-up trophy. Howard won the tiebreaker over Florida A&M to secure the number two seed, while FAMU earned the third seed. The Lady Bison will meet the winner of No. 7 SCSU vs. No. 10 DSU on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. FAMU, the third seed, will face the winner of No. 6 UMES/No. 11 SSU on Thursday, March 8 at Noon.

The 2012 regular season champion, regular season runners-up, first-team members and top honorees including Player, Rookie, Defensive and Coach of the Year selections, will be recognized in pre-game presentations prior to the honorees first games in tournament play.

The 2012 MEAC Basketball Tournament tips-off Monday, March 5, and will conclude on Saturday, March 10 with the men's and women's championship games. The men's finale will begin at 1 p.m. and will broadcast live on ESPN2, followed by the women's game at 4 p.m. live on ESPNU. The preliminary games will also be streamed live on www.MEACsports.com. Live statistics of all games will be available on the conferences' official website and the tournament's official website, http://www.meachoops.com/

2012 MEAC Women's Basketball Tournament Bracket

COURTESY: MEAC MEDIA RELATIONS