The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) announced its women's pairings for the 2011 MEAC Basketball Tournament, March 7-12 at the Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  Hampton will enter the tournament as the top seed after concluding the regular-season with a 15-1 mark in MEAC play.

The Lady Pirates earned the tournament first-round bye and will open up play on Wednesday, March 9 at 12:30 p.m.  They will face the winner of the South Carolina State/ Bethune-Cookman matchup slated for Tuesday, March 8 at 1:30 p.m.

Tuesday's games will begin with No. 7 Maryland Eastern Shore (7-8) taking on No. 10 Delaware State (5-11) at 11 a.m. The Lady Hawks clinched the seventh seed tonight with a 55-49 win over Lady Hornets.

No. 6 Howard will face off against No. 11 Norfolk State in the final women's game of the day at 4 p.m.

Wednesday's women's basketball action begins at 10 a.m. with Morgan State taking on the winner of the UMES/DSU game. The Morgan State Lady Bears and North Carolina A&T Lady Aggies both finished the season with a 10-6 mark in MEAC play and will share the conference's Runners-up trophy. Morgan State won the tiebreaker over North Carolina A&T to secure the No. 2 spot and the Lady Aggies earned the number three seed.

North Carolina A&T will take on the winner of the No. 6 Howard/No. 11 Norfolk State game on Thursday, March 10 at Noon.

Florida A&M (9-7) won the tiebreaker over Coppin State and Howard to secure the number four seed and will matchup against the Coppin State Lady Eagles on Thursday at 2:30 p.m.  Coppin State earned the fifth seed while Howard earned the sixth seed.

Delaware State (5-11) and Norfolk State (2-14) are seeded 10th and 11th, respectively.

Bethune-Cookman and Maryland Eastern Shore will wrap of the MEAC regular season on Saturday, March 5.  The game’s result will decide the conference’s No. 8 and No. 9 seeded teams. 

The 2011 regular season champion, regular season runners-up, first-team members and top honorees including Player, Rookie, Defensive and Coach of the Year selections, will be recognized in pre-game presentations prior to the honorees first games in tournament play.  Howard’s Saadia Doyle was named Player of the Year. Coppin State’s Larrisa Carter was selected the MEAC Rookie of the Year and Hampton's Quanneisha Perry earned Defensive Player of the Year honors for the second straight year. Hampton’s David Six was voted by his peers as the MEAC Coach of the Year.

The 2011 MEAC Basketball Tournament tips-off Tuesday, March 8, and will conclude on Saturday, March 12 with the men's and women's championship games. The women's finale tips-off at 5 p.m. and will air taped delayed on ESPNU, March 13 at 11:30 a.m. 

For Tournament information, log on to www.MEAChoops.com.