CHAPEL HILL, N.C.-- The University of North Carolina women's basketball team has received an at-large bid to the 2002 NCAA Tournament and will host Harvard Saturday in a first-round game. Game time is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.

UNC (24-8) is seeded fourth in the Midwest Region and Harvard (22-5) is seeded 13th. In the other first-round game at Carmichael Auditorium, scheduled for a 5:00 p.m. start, No. 5 seed Minnesota will face No. 12 seed UNLV.

The first-round winners will meet Monday for a spot in the Midwest Region semifinal. Tipoff for that game, which will be televised on ESPN2, is 6:36 p.m.

"We're glad to be playing at home," UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell said. "We feel like we earned the home site by finishing second in the conference and winning 10 of our last 12 games. We're excited to keep playing and we want to keep playing well."

North Carolina and Harvard have met just once, in the first round of NCAA Tournament play in 1997. That year, No. 1-seed UNC defeated No. 16-seed Harvard 78-53 in Chapel Hill.

The Tar Heels will make the program's 14th NCAA Tournament appearance, the 10th under Hatchell. Carolina's most recent appearance in the field was in 2000, when the fifth-seeded Tar Heels reached the West Region semifinal before falling to Georgia.

Tournament ticket packages are $15 for adults, $10 for students. Single game tickets are $10 for adults and $6 for students. Both options are available by calling the UNC ticket office at (919) 962-2296 or (800) 722-4335.