Monday, March 01, 2004

By virtue of a coin flip, Valparaiso became the #2 seed for this weekend's Hereford House Mid-Continent Conference Basketball Tournament this weekend in Kansas City, Mo. The Crusaders will face #7 IUPUI in the quarterfinals on Saturday evening at 5 p.m. CST.

Valpo (17-11, 11-5 Mid-Con) defeated Chicago State 56-46 on Monday night, and coupled with UMKC's loss to Southern Utah finished tied with the Kangaroos for second place in the league standings.

The Crusaders swept the season's series with the Jaguars (7-20, 4-12), winning 67-49 at the Athletics-Recreation Center back on January 6 and 75-52 in Indianapolis on January 19.

All of Valpo's games will be broadcast on the internet and on WVUR-95.1 FM. Should Valpo advance to the semifinals, the Crusaders would play Monday at 2:15 p.m. CST. against the winner of the #3 UMKC (14-13, 11-5)-#6 Southern Utah (18-9, 9-7) contest. The championship is set for Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. CST.

In other quarterfinal match-ups pit regular season champion Western Illinois (19-8, 13-3) against #8 Chicago State (8-19, 3-13) and #4 Oakland (17-10, 10-6) against #5 Oral Roberts (15-12, 9-7).