March 3, 2009

MILWAUKEE -

2009 BIG EAST Tournament Bracket in PDF Format

The Marquette women's basketball team has earned the No. 9 seed in the BIG EAST Conference Tournament which begins Friday, March 6 at the XL Center in Hartford, Conn. The Golden Eagles will play No. 16 seed Cincinnati at 2 p.m. The winner will face No. 8 seed USF in the second round on Saturday, March 7 at 2 p.m.

Marquette (16-14) and Georgetown (17-12) each finished the BIG EAST regular season with records of 7-9, but MU earned the No. 9 seed by virtue of the head-to-head tiebreaker. The Golden Eagles beat the Hoyas 80-65 on Jan. 21 to win the head-to-head tiebreaker.

The 2009 field is based on regular-season league records, with the highest four seeds earning double byes into the quarterfinals. Teams finishing in spots 5-8 earn a first-round bye, while seeds 9-16 will begin play in the first round on March 6.

First round games will be available on the BIG EAST's website through the conference's official streaming video platform, BIGEAST.tv.

The second round of the Women's Championship on March 7 will be televised on selected regional stations and can also be seen live on BIGEAST.tv. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be carried on ESPNU, with the championship game airing live on ESPN March 10.

Championship ticket packages for all 15 games may still be purchased at the reduced value of $99, which is discounted by nearly one half of the face value.

To charge tickets by phone, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. In addition, tickets can be purchased online by logging on to the XL Center website at www.xlcenter.com or the Ticketmaster website at www.ticketmaster.com.

Tickets can also be purchased at the XL Center box office beginning today. Weekday box office hours are Noon-5 p.m. For weekend events, the box office will open four hours prior to the start of an event. All ticket purchases are subject to additional convenience fees.

For group sales (10 or more) information and discounts, please contact the XL Center at (860) 548-2000.