Tag: WNIT

Wisconsin women’s basketball advances to WNIT Great 8 to face Saint Louis

Wisconsin women advance to Great 8 in WNIT, facing Saint Louis

The Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball team beat Illinois State 86-61 on Thursday, advancing to the Great 8 in the WNIT on Monday night versus Saint Louis.

Playing in their first postseason action as a program in over a decade, Marisa Moseley’s squad continued their WNIT run against the Redbirds. Led by Sania Copeland and Serah Williams, both of whom chipped in 18 points, Wisconsin won in dominant fashion.

They’ll now get another home game at the Kohl Center in Madison, hosting the Saint Louis Billikens on Monday night at 7pm Central. Saint Louis is coming off of an 82-78 victory over Purdue Fort Wayne on Friday night.

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First Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament explained

The first Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament started on March 21 and culminates with a championship weekend right after Easter.

The first Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT) started March 21 and culminates with a championship weekend right after Easter. With the 2024 addition of the WBIT, women’s Division I college basketball players have three postseason opportunities to showcase talent: the Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT), the WBIT and the NCAA Tournament.

The WBIT tournament consists of 32 teams chosen by the WBIT selection committee and is fully owned by the NCAA. The WNIT consists of 48 teams and is privately owned. The NCAA Tournament consists of 68 teams and is also owned by the NCAA.

The WBIT committee comprised five former DI women’s basketball coaches and three current or former Division I athletic administrators. The committee follows a set of rules when selecting the teams, including, but not limited to:

  • Select the best available teams to fill the WBIT field with no limit on the number of teams the committee may select from one conference.
  • A member shall not vote for a team the committee member currently represents as an institutional or conference administrator.
  • The regular-season champion of any NCAA Division I conference (as determined by the conference’s tie-break protocol) not otherwise selected to the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship will secure an automatic qualification to the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament.
  • Co-champions who do not receive the declaration of WBIT representative through the conference’s tie-break protocol will not receive automatic qualification and institutions ineligible for postseason play will not receive automatic qualification as a regular-season champion.
  • The first four teams out of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship, will receive an automatic bid and will be the top four seeds in the WBIT field.
  • Reclassifying institutions are not eligible to participate in the WBIT.
  • All votes will be by secret ballot.

The first, second and quarterfinal games will be held at campus sites, and the semifinals and championship games will be played at Butler University’s Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The top 16 teams will host the first-round games as long as they submit a bid and meet the requirements for hosting.

Preliminary round games can be watched live on ESPN+. The semifinal games will be broadcast on ESPNU, with the title game set for ESPN2.

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Lady Wins win WNIT opener in overtime vs. George Mason

Penn State Lady Lions advance to the second round of the WNIT after a come-from-behind overtime victory.

The Penn State women’s basketball team will see its season continue following Thursday night’s overtime victory over George Mason in the first round of the WNIT. Penn State won the first-round matchup by a final score of 84-80 to advance into the second round of the inaugural WNIT.

Penn State needed a furious fourth-quarter rally after falling behind by as many as 12 points in the final quarter of regulation. [autotag]Leilani Kapinus[/autotag] capped the fourth-quarter comeback with a pair of free throws to tie the game at  70-70 in the final seconds to highlight her double-double in the game. It was her fourth double-double of the season.

Penn State took control in overtime with [autotag]Ashley Owusu[/autotag] helping set the tone on a night she scored 20 points to lead the team. Strong defense and clutch free throw shooting helped keep Penn State on top in overtime and allowed Penn State to move on to the second round.

Penn State will now prepare to face Belmont in the second round of the WNIT. The Lady Lions will host Belmont on Monday evening at 6 p.m. ET in the Bryce Jordan Center.

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NCAA creates more ‘postseason opportunity for women’s basketball’

There will now be 100 postseason NCAA-funded opportunities available for Division I women’s basketball teams.

On Monday the NCAA announced the creation of the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament. The postseason tournament will consist of 32 teams and will begin in 2024. The tournament is owned and funded by the NCAA.

Later this summer, “the NCAA will identify a selection committee, comprising women’s basketball stakeholders and NCAA members, to administer the WBIT.”

“Women’s basketball is at an all-time high with records being set for the national championship and Final Four viewership, and the tournament was the most viewed since 2009,” said Jamie Boggs, chair of the Division I Women’s Basketball Oversight Committee. “This tournament will create an additional NCAA-funded postseason opportunity for women’s basketball, and it comes at a time when we are seeing tremendous growth in popularity for women’s basketball.”

This event will not replace the WNIT or the March Madness NCAA tournament but rather be supported and funded by the NCAA as an equivalent to the men’s NIT tournament. There will now be 100 postseason NCAA-funded opportunities available for Division I women’s basketball teams. The tournament’s format, including the selection process, bracketing principles, and host sites will be released at a later time.

How to Watch: Florida women’s basketball vs Bowling Green Falcons in WNIT

Here’s how to follow Monday night’s women’s basketball action as the WNIT continues into the quarterfinals.

Florida women’s basketball travels to take on the Bowling Green Falcons on Monday, March 27, inside Stroh Center in Bowling Green, Ohio, in the Super 16 round of the 2023 Women’s National Invitation Tournament, and if you’re wondering how you can watch the action live, you’ve come to the right place.

The Gators (19-14, 5-11 SEC) opened up the tournament with a thrilling 66-63 win over the Wofford Terriers on Thursday to kick things off before knocking out the Wake Forest Demon Deacons on the road last Monday, 80-63. Then on Thursday, UF punched its ticket to the next round with a win over the Clemson Tigers, 73-63.

The Falcons (30-6, 14-4 MAC) earned their date with the Orange and Blue with an 87-80 win over the Liberty Flames, a 69-51 win over Green Bay Phoenixes and a 73-60 win over the Memphis Tigers.

Florida and Bowling Green have only met once before in program history, with the Gators leading the series thanks to a lone 69-67 win in the first round of the 1993 NCAA Tournament.

WBB recap: Ducks’ WNIT run ends in Seattle

Suspect second half shooting took Oregon down as the Ducks’ season ends in Seattle with a WNIT quarterfinal loss.

Of all places to see your season end, Seattle is one of the last places the Oregon Ducks women’s basketball team wanted to end the 2022-23 campaign.

Poor second-half shooting was Oregon’s ultimate downfall as the Ducks went down 63-59 to Washington in the WNIT quarterfinals. It was the first time the Huskies have defeated Oregon in four tries this season.

Washington will continue its season against Kansas in the semifinals while Oregon’s off-season officially begins.

The Ducks shot just 35 percent in the second half and the Huskies were able to erase an early double-digit deficit.

Te-Hina Paopao led Oregon with 14 points, but 11 of those points came in the first half. The Huskies’ defense concentrated on Paopao after halftime and the Duck point guard couldn’t get open.

Taya Hanson scored 12 points on four threes and Phillipina Kyei scored nine points and 11 rebounds.

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WBB recap: Big second quarter run propels Ducks into WNIT quarters

Oregon went on a 17-0 run in the second quarter and the Ducks defeated San Diego by 20 and advanced to the WNIT quarterfinals.

With Oregon shooting threes like it did tonight, even Stanford would have had a tough time beating the Ducks.

It wasn’t the Cardinal, but the San Diego Toreros that went down to Oregon 81-61 in the third round of the WNIT. The Ducks now advance to the quarterfinals on Sunday and will play either Washington or Kansas State.

For the game, Oregon was 14-of-32 from the three-point line with Ahlise Hurst leading the Ducks with 23 points on seven treys.

The Ducks also played tough defense for the entire 40 minutes and the Toreros never got their offense going. The members from the West Coast Conference shot just 33 percent from the field and 3-of-13 from long range.

WBB recap: Ducks pressure Rice into turnovers and advance in WNIT

A dominating third quarter helped the Ducks fry Rice 78-53 to advance to the third round of the WNIT.

When the Oregon Ducks women’s basketball team decides to turn up the defensive pressure, not many teams can handle it. Rice proved it was incapable of handling the Duck press in the third quarter and what was a close game turned into a rout.

Oregon advanced to the WNIT third round with the 78-53 win over the Owls. A 23-9 third quarter turned a good game into the blowout. The Ducks had three players in double figures and center Phillipina Kyei just missed a triple-double in points, rebounds and blocks. She was dominating inside the paint and Rice never found an answer for the 6-foot-8 Kyei.

Now the Ducks will host San Diego Thursday night as the Toreros defeated UC-Irvine.

WBB recap: Ducks cruise past Bison in first round of the WNIT

Oregon advances to the second round of the WNIT with a 39-point blowout over North Dakota State.

For the first 10 minutes, the Oregon Ducks women’s basketball team looked like they hadn’t played in over a week.

But then the Ducks turned on the jets and blitzed North Dakota State 96-57 to advance to the second round of the WNIT where they will host Rice.

The first quarter seemingly featured two evenly matched teams as the Ducks held just a slim 19-15 lead. That was a mirage. Oregon outclassed the Bison for the remaining 30 minutes to win by 39 points in front of 2,703 fans.

Those who showed up to Matthew Knight Arena definitely liked what they saw. Te-Hina Paopao continued to play great as she has been for the past month. Grace VanSlooten seems to be over her ankle injury and Ahlise Hurst has found her shooting prowess.

They also witnessed a little past glory as Endyia Rogers simulated Sabrina Ionescu with a triple-double of her own with 10 points, 11 boards, and 11 assists.

Arkansas gets Louisiana Tech at Bud Walton Arena for WNIT

Arkansas is considered one of the favorites for the WNIT. They won the title in 1999.

Arkansas didn’t make the NCAA Tournament field when it was announced Sunday.

But if there was a silver lining, it came Monday.

The Razorbacks will host Louisiana Tech in the first round of the Womern’s National Invitational Tournament at Bud Walton Arena on Thursday. Tip time is scheduled for 7 p.m. on SEC Network+.

Arkansas had a slim chance at gaining an at-large bid to the Big Dance after beating Missouri in the SEC Tournament. But a finish that saw the Razorbacks lose of their final four games of the regular season was too much to overcome.

The WNIT appearance is the team’s eighth overall. Arkansas has never lost an opening WNIT game and won the title back in 1999 over Wisconsin.

Arkansas is one of the tournament’s favorites this season. The Hogs won 21 games during the regular season and in the SEC Tournament in a conference considered one of the strongest in the country. Erynn Barnum leads four Arkansas players with double-figures scoring averages at 15.7 points per game.

Fellow SEC schools Auburn, Florida and Missouri were also selected for the WNIT.

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