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Golden Eagles Head to Dallas to Face Texas in NCAA Tournament Opening Round

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Oral Roberts University, which claimed its first Mid-Continent Conference women's basketball crown since 2001 last Tuesday and subsequent automatic berth into the 2005 NCAA Tournament and will serve as the No. 14 seed in the Chattanooga Regional. The Golden Eagles will face third-seeded Texas in the first round of the tourney in Dallas, Texas on March 19 at a game time to be determined. The winner of the Texas-ORU match-up will take on the winner of the No. 6 Georgia-No. 11 Rice game on March 21 in Dallas.

The Golden Eagles (22-8) and head coach Jerry Finkbeiner finished fourth in the regular-season standings, but came on strong during the Mid-Con Championship to defeat #5 seed Chicago State, top-ranked Western Illinois and seventh-seeded UMKC en route to the title. It was the third tourney crown for ORU overall with the other wins coming in 1999 and 2001. Oral Roberts enters the national tournament riding a four-game winning streak and are winners of 10 of its last 12 contests.

The Mid-Con is 2-8 versus the 2005 NCAA Tournament field, led by Valparaiso with four appearances (1-3) against the 64 teams competing for the NCAA title. The Crusaders lone victory came against Dartmouth (66-60). Oakland also picked up a victory against the NCAA tourney field when the Golden Grizzlies topped Illinois State (82-70). Oral Roberts lost its only game against members of the NCAA Tournament field this season, with a 79-46 loss to Texas Tech.

The Mid-Con is 1-13 all-time in the NCAA Tournament with the lone win coming for Youngstown State in 1998 against Memphis (91-80). In its previous two national tourney appearances, ORU is 0-2 all-time in the NCAAs, dropping decisions to No. 1 seed Purdue (68-48) in 1999 and No. 2 seed Oklahoma (70-64) in 2001.