Feb. 25, 2007

Cullowhee, N.C. - After the conclusion of the 2006-07 regular season on Sunday afternoon, the official seeding and pairings for next week's Southern Conference Men's and Women's Basketball Championships were announced by the conference office. Western Carolina's women enter the tournament as the top seed, while the Catamount men earned the seventh seed.

The annual SoCon Tournament begins on Tuesday evening with the first round of women's competition, with a full compliment of games to be contested on Wednesday beginning at 10:00 am. All games this year will be played at the North Charleston Coliseum with championship play for both sides finishing up on Saturday, March 3.

The Lady Catamounts, which shared the regular season championship with Chattanooga, earned the number one seed in the post-season tournament by defeating the Lady Mocs twice during the year. WCU will await the winner of Tuesday's game two between the No. 8 College of Charleston Cougars and No. 9 Furman Lady Paladins, playing in Wednesday's second game at the North Charleston Coliseum at approximately Noon.

Western's men will be the seventh seed in the tournament, facing No. 10 Elon at approximately 5:00 pm on Wednesday evening. Predicted to finish fifth in the SoCon's North Division in the preseason, the Catamounts matched last year's league win total with seven victories to finish third.

Both WCU and Georgia Southern finished with identical 7-11 conference marks with the Eagles earning the higher seed despite Western winning the lone head-to-head meeting between the two. By SoCon tie-breaking policies, if two teams are tied but have not played twice in a regular season, then head-to-head procedures can not be used to break the tie. Instead, it goes to the overall conference standings and how each tied team did comparatively against the highest seeds not involved in the tie. In this case, both WCU and GSU were swept by the number one seed, Davidson, and number two seed, Appalachian State. Western additionally lost two to the third-seeded College of Charleston Cougars, while Georgia Southern split with its South Division rival, winning 74-65 yesterday (Saturday, Feb. 24) to claim the higher seed.

The winner of the Western-Elon game will advance to Thursday's quarterfinal round against the No. 2 seed Appalachian State Mountaineers at 7:00 pm

All of Western's games will be broadcast by the Catamount Sports Network (CSN) and can be heard in Western North Carolina on the Flagship Station of Catamount Athletics, WWCU-FM, Power 90dot5 in Cullowhee or online at www.CatamountSports.com. CSN will also broadcast a tournament preview show live from the Tuesday (Feb. 27) evening social, presented by the Western Club of the Lowcountry, at the Courtyard by Marriott in downtown Charleston. The show will air from 7:00 pm until 8:00 pm on WWCU-FM, Power 90dot5.

2007 Southern Conference Men's Championship Schedule
First Round
Wednesday, February 28
Session 1 - Game 1: No. 8 Chattanooga vs. No. 9 Wofford, 3:00 p.m.
Session 1 - Game 2: No. 7 Western Carolina vs. No. 10 Elon, 30 minutes after Game 1
Session 1 - Game 3: No. 6 Georgia Southern vs. No. 11 The Citadel, 30 minutes after Game 2
Quarterfinals
Thursday, March 1
Session 2 - Game 4: No. 1 Davidson vs. Winner of Game 1, 2:00 p.m.
Session 2 - Game 5: No. 4 UNC Greensboro vs. No. 5 Furman, 30 minutes after Game 4
Session 3 - Game 6: No. 2 Appalachian State vs. Winner of Game 2, 7:00 p.m.
Session 3 - Game 7: No. 3 College of Charleston vs. Winner of Game 3, 30 minutes after Game 6
Semifinals
Friday, March 2
Session 4 - Game 8: Winner of Game 4 vs. Winner of Game 5, 	6:00 p.m. (ESPN Full Court & SoCon Network)
Session 4 - Game 9: Winner of Game 6 vs. Winner of Game 7, 8:30 p.m. (ESPN Full Court & SoCon Network)
Championship
Saturday, March 3
Session 5 - Game 10: Championship, 6:00 p.m. (ESPN2)

2007 Southern Conference Women's Basketball Championship Schedule
First Round
Tuesday, February 27
Session 1 - Game 1: No. 7 Appalachian State vs. No. 10 Elon, 7:00 p.m.
Session 1 - Game 2: No. 8 College of Charleston vs. No. 9 Furman, 30 minutes after Game 1
Quarterfinals
Wednesday, February 28
Session 2 - Game 3: No. 2 Chattanooga vs. winner of Game 1 - 10:00 a.m.
Session 2 - Game 4: No. 1 Western Carolina vs. winner of Game 2 - 30 minutes after Game 3
Thursday, March 1
Session 3 - Game 5: No. 4 UNC Greensboro vs. No. 5 Georgia Southern, 9:00 a.m.
Session 3 - Game 6: No. 3 Davidson vs. No. 6 Wofford, 30 minutes after Game 5
Semifinals
Friday, March 2
Session 4 - Game 7: Winner of Game 4 vs. Winner of Game 5, Noon (CSS & SoCon Network)
Session 4 - Game 8: Winner of Game 3 vs. Winner of Game 6, 2:30 p.m. (CSS & SoCon Network)
Championship
Saturday, March 3
Session 5 - Game 9: Championship, 2:00 p.m. (CSS & SoCon Network)