March 4, 2008

IRVING, Texas - UCF will play host to the 2008 Conference USA Women's Basketball Tournament, March 6-9, at the new UCF Arena. Single-game and session ticket packages are now available. Call the UCFAA Ticket Sales Office at 407-823-1000. For the latest news and information on the women's basketball championship log on to www.conferenceusa.com - the official site for C-USA.

C-USA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK & STATISTICS

2008 C-USA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
UCF Arena, Orlando, Fla., March 6-9

MARCH Thursday, 6
Game 1: No. 7 Memphis vs. No. 10 Tulsa - 12 p.m.
Game 2: No. 6 Marshall vs. No. 11 Tulane - 2:30 p.m.
Game 3: No. 5 Southern Miss vs. No. 12 UCF - 5:30 p.m.
Game 4: No. 8 East Carolina vs. No. 9 Rice - 8 p.m.

Friday, 7
Game 5: winner Game 1 vs. No. 2 SMU - 12 p.m.
Game 6: winner Game 2 vs. No. 3 UAB - 2:30 p.m.
Game 7: winner Game 3 vs. No. 4 Houston - 5:30 p.m.
Game 8: winner Game 4 vs. No. 1 UTEP- 8 p.m.

Saturday, 8
Game 9: winner Game 5 and 6 (CSTV) - 3 p.m.
Game 10: winner Game 7 and 8 (CSTV) - 5:30 p.m.

Sunday, 9
Game 11: winner Game 9 and 10 (ESPN2) - 3:30 p.m.

All championship times are Eastern and will be played inside the new UCF Arena.

UTEP PICKS UP FIRST REGULAR SEASON C-USA CROWN & NO. 1 SEED IN TOURNAMENT
No. 18/23 UTEP became the 11 different women's basketball program in C-USA history to win the league's regular season title.

The No. 1 seed Miners enter the conference championship riding a 21-game winning streak and sport an overall record of 25-2.

2008 C-USA CHAMPIONSHIP
The 2008 Women's Basketball Championship is scheduled for March 6-9 at the new UCF Arena in Orlando, Fla. The event will be hosted by UCF at the new 10,000-seat UCF Arena.

All 12 C-USA teams will compete in the conference tournament, with the champion receiving the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.

The tournament will feature four first-round games on Thursday, March 6 and four quarterfinal games on Friday, March 7.

The two semifinal games on Saturday, March 8 will be televised on CSTV with 3 and 5:30 p.m. ET tip times.

The championship game will take place on Sunday, March 9 and will be televised by ESPN2 at 2:30 p.m. ET.

To purchase C-USA Women's Basketball tickets call 407-UCF-1000 or visit online at UCFathletics.com.

TICKET PRICES
General Admission:
All Sessions: Adult $50; Youth $40
Single Session: Adult $10; Youth $7

EAST CAROLINA SET TO DEFEND TOURNAMENT TITLE
Defending C-USA Championship, East Carolina enters the 2008 tournament as the No. 8 seed and will face No. 9 Rice on Thursday at 8 p.m.

The Pirates won the 2007 title as the No. 3 seed with a win over then sixth seed SMU (76-62) followed by upsetting No. 3 seed UAB (85-81) and taking the tournament title with a victory over Rice (79-70).

It was the first conference championship title for ECU and it qualified the Pirates for their first NCAA Tournament appearance.

Rice has appeared in the championship game the last two years.

No team in C-USA history has won the conference tournament after losing its last two regular season games. ECU, SMU and Tulsa enters the championship with two-or-more losses.

LIVE STREAMING AT CHAMPIONSHIP
Conference USA will offer live online streaming video of 10 C-USA Women's Basketball Championship games from UCF Arena in Orlando, Fla. The championship game will not be available online, but will be televised nationally on ESPN2.

Each game will be available on a pay-per-view basis for a one-time payment of $9.95.

All 10 games are available by purchasing a subscription to CSTV XXL. For more information on CSTV XXL and how to order, go to www.cstv.com/xxl.

If you are a current Annual subscriber to CSTV XXL, you will be able to access ALL 10 games as part of your subscription, PLUS audio/video coverage from other conference tournaments.

C-USA PLAYER OF THE WEEK
VALERIYA BEREZHYNSKA, RICE
6-4, Senior, Center, Nikolaev, Ukraine
Berezhynska paced Rice to a pair of home victories over East Carolina and Marshall to close out the regular season and tallied a complete effort averaging 23.0 points, 19.5 rebounds, 3.0 steals and 2.5 blocks per game. She knocked down 50 percent of her shots from the floor (17-of-36) and hit a stellar 90 percent from the free throw line (18-of-20).

Berezhynska has compiled four consecutive double-doubles and has reached the 20-point plateau in four of her last five outings.

The 23 points against East Carolina allowed Berezhynska to surpass Krystal Frazier (2004-07) and moved into 11th place on Rice's career scoring list.

With Rice behind 39-29 with 16 minutes left in the second half against ECU, Berezhynska scored 17 of her game-high 23 points in the second half. She also grabbed 19 rebounds and added career-best five steals.

The Ukraine native opened the weekend by racking up 23 points and matched a career-best 20 rebounds. The 20 rebounds also equaled a C-USA high for the season. On the defensive end, Berezhynska also matched a career-best four blocks.

ALL-CONFERENCE USA
FIRST TEAM
Janielle Dodds, SMU
Jareica Hughes, UTEP
Diamond Rogers, UAB
Twiggy McIntyre, Houston
Pauline Love, Southern Miss

SECOND TEAM
Natasha Lacy, UTEP
Jasmine Young, East Carolina
Izabela Piekarska, UTEP
LaCoya Terry, East Carolina
Valeriya Berezhynska, Rice

THIRD TEAM
Larrissa Williams, Tulsa
Tia Lewis, UCF
Delisha Wills, SMU
Crystal McFadden, UAB
Tye Jackson, Houston
Ashley Langford, Tulane

ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM
Sharee Shepherd, SMU
Jasmine Young, East Carolina
Casey Baker, Marshall
Natasha Lacy, UTEP
Chanel Johnson, Tulsa

ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
Tia Lewis, UCF
Amanda Peterson, UAB
Courtney Taylor, Houston
Cobilyn Hill, Houston
Emma Cannon, UCF

ALL-ACADEMIC TEAM
Kendra Reed - Southern Miss
Twiggy McIntyre - Houston
Kadie Riverin - Rice
Tara Watts - Rice
Janielle Dodds - SMU
Liz Biland - Southern Miss Natasha Lacy - UTEP
PONY UP
SMU senior center Janielle Dodds leads the team in scoring (15.0 ppg) and rebounds (7.8 rpg) and is closing in on the all-time career marks in both categories - she needs three points and four rebounds to become the Mustangs' all-time leader in both categories.

Senior post Janielle Dodds cemented her place in SMU history against Tulane on March 1, when she became SMU's all-time scorer and rebounder. She broke former SMU's Karlin Kennedy records in each category.

C-USA HOT SHOTS
* C-USA has had 10 players join the 1,000-point club this season. A total of 12 student-athletes and seven programs are represented. UAB, East Carolina, Southern Miss, Rice and UTEP have two each. SMU's Janielle Dodds and UAB's Crystal McFadden joined the club prior to this season.

* UAB currently has two players, seniors Crystal McFadden and Diamond Rogers, with 1,000-or-more points and one on the verge of crossing the milestone, junior Britney Jones. UAB has had three 1,000-point players on the same team twice before.

The last time was during the 1993-94 season (Valecia Buckner, Kanekia Curry and Sandra Mifflin) and the other was in 1981-82 (Wanda Hightower, Gloria Helton and Jenetta Johnson).

* UCF enters the C-USA Championship with 10 wins, the most in three seasons.

* SMU's 21 regular-season wins is the most in program history. The Ponies are just one win shy of tying the school record for most overall wins. The 1999-2000 club went 22-9 en route to winning the Western Athletic title and advancing to the second round of the NCAA Championship.