By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The top-seeded UTSA Roadrunners will play either the UAB Blazers or the Rice Owls on Monday at noon in Fort Worth in the quarterfinals of the American Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Championship, according to the bracket released by the AAC.

Defending tournament champion Rice is the No. 9 seed, and UAB is No. 8.

Should UTSA win in the quarterfinals it would advance to Tuesday’s semifinals, scheduled for 6 p.m., against either Florida Atlantic, Charlotte, Tulsa or Temple. The highest seeds out of that group would include No. 5 Tulsa or No. 4 Temple.

If the other side of the bracket plays out according to seed, No. 3 South Florida would meet No. 2 North Texas in the other semifinal on Tuesday. Tipoff would be at 8 p.m.

The finals are scheduled for 6 p.m. on Wednesday, with the winner of the title game earning an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Games in the AAC tournament will open on Saturday in Denton, with Sunday through Wednesday matchups at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth. Rice and UAB are scheduled to play Sunday at noon.

The Roadrunners, who enter the postseason at 26-3, finished 17-1 in the regular season. They are undefeated against everyone in the 13-team tournament field except for South Florida.

UTSA beat UAB 67-56 at home on Jan. 1.

UTSA is 2-0 against Rice, having beaten the Owls 67-58 at home on Jan. 8. On Feb. 22 in Houston, the Roadrunners escaped with a 57-55 victory over the Owls when Dominique Ennis missed a three at the buzzer.

Last year, Rice entered the tournament as the No. 10 seed and won four games in four days to win it all. The Owls hoisted the trophy after defeating the ninth-seeded East Carolina Pirates in the finals.

A day earlier, East Carolina ended No. 4 seed UTSA’s season in the semifinals.

The Roadrunners haven’t won a conference tournament in women’s basketball since they did it in both 2007-08 and 2008-09 in the Southland.