Texas women get No. 4 seed, will take on East Carolina at Moody Center in 1st round

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Texas Longhorns women's basketball may have lost the Big 12 Conference tournament championship on Sunday, but they're still a top-16 national seed and will host the first and second rounds in the NCAA women's basketball tournament.

The Longhorns earned the No. 4 seed in one of two Seattle regionals and they'll take on the 13th-seeded East Carolina Pirates on March 19 at Moody Center. Louisville is No. 5 and will play 12th-seeded Drake in the other first-round game scheduled for Austin. If the Longhorns and Cardinals make it through the first round, the second round will be a rematch of a Battle 4 Atlantis matchup way back on Nov. 20. Louisville won that game 71-63.

The TV schedule has yet to be announced, but the games will air on the ESPN networks with the national championship on ABC at 2 p.m., April 2.

It's the 35th time in school history the Longhorns have made it to the NCAA tournament and the eighth consecutive year. Last season they reached the Elite 8 before falling to top-seeded Standford 59-50 in Spokane, Washington. Texas was a No. 2 seed last year and beat Fairfield, Utah and Ohio State before losing to the Cardinal.

Texas has made the Final Four three times, the last time in 2003, and the Longhorns won the national championship in 1986. Texas is 2-2 as a No. 4 seed in program history.

It's certainly an advantage for the Longhorns to start the tournament at home because they were tremendous at the Moody Center, finishing 14-2.