Aggie women invited to basketball postseason by WNIT selection committee
UC Davis heads to Malibu to take on Pepperdine Thursday night
Members of the UC Davis women’s basketball team may have felt their long season had ended Friday afternoon in Henderson, Nevada, when they dropped a heartbreaking 84-79 decision to UC San Diego in the semifinals of the Big West Tournament.
However, shortly after the game concluded, Aggie head coach Jen Gross hinted that the Aggies hoped to get a bid to the postseason Women’s National Invitation Tournament, a hope that turned into reality when the WNIT revealed its 48-team field Sunday evening.
The Aggies will open play in the single-elimination WNIT Thursday at 6 p.m. at Pepperdine University in Malibu.
The game will be telecast live on ESPN+ and broadcast live on radio station KDVS (90.3 FM).
The game will be held in the 3,104-seat Firestone Fieldhouse on the Pepperdine campus.
The Waves finished sixth in the West Coast Conference and were defeated by the University of San Francisco, 86-69, in their opening game of the WCC tournament.
Pepperdine finished the regular season 19-12 overall and 10-8 in the WCC and had a 2-0 mark in nonconference games against Big West opponents, with wins of 69-63 over Cal State Northridge and 84-70 over Cal State Fullerton.
The Aggies are 23-10 overall and finished third in the Big West at 15-5.
If the Aggies get past Pepperdine, they will host Southern Utah on Monday night. SUU has a first-round bye. UCD officials say the Monday game will offer free admission to everyone.
Ryann Bennett leads the Aggies in scoring with 15.1 points a game and is also the team leader in assists with 133 and in steals with 52.
Nya Epps adds 13.0 points a game, while Megan Norris, UCD’s all-time career rebounding leader, averages 12.3 points and 12.7 rebounds a game, along with 47 of the team’s 81 blocks.
Avery Sussex, who made the Big West’s all-tournament team after exploding for 50 points in two games, contributes 12.2 points per game, 107 assists and 45 steals for the Aggies.
For the uninitiated, the WNIT is not the NCAA tournament, which announced its 68-team field earlier on Sunday. It’s also not to be confused with the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament, the WBIT, which is owned and operated by the NCAA and also announced its 32-team field before the WNIT made its selections from the schools remaining.
Between the three tournaments, 148 of the NCAA’s 355 women’s basketball teams will be playing in the postseason.
The Aggies may want to take a map of California with them to explain to their hosts exactly where the UC Davis campus is located.
According to an official press release from Pepperdine, “The Waves will host UC Davis out of the Bay Area.”
Which is like saying Malibu is located in the Mojave Desert.
Live and learn.
Reach Bob Dunning at bobdunning@thewaryone.com