The University of Northern Colorado women’s basketball team will play the University of Texas San Antonio in the first round of the Women’s NIT Thursday in San Antonio, Texas.
The game begins at 5:30 p.m. MDT (6:30 p.m. CDT) and will be played at the Convocation Center on the UTSA campus.
The matchups and full bracket for the 48-team tournament were announced Monday afternoon. Games will be played at campus sites. The tournament field was announced Sunday evening. UNC and UTSA were among the 37 teams receiving at-large selections.
UNC is 15-15 this year following the regular season and Big Sky Conference Tournament. The Bears lost to Montana State 47-44 in overtime in a Big Sky tournament quarterfinal last week.
UNC is making its fifth appearance in the WNIT. The team played in the tournament in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2019. Wyoming defeated UNC in the first round of the 2019 tournament, 68-60, in Laramie.
UTSA (17-14) is a member of the American Athletic Conference. The Roadrunners were 10-8 in the AAC and also received an at-large selection. The team lost its most recent game March 12 to East Carolina in the AAC semifinals.
UTSA will play in the postseason for the first time since the 2008-09 season, according to the Roadrunners’ athletics website. That year, the Roadrunners made their second straight NCAA Tournament appearance after winning Southland Conference Tournament titles.
The winner of the UNC-UTSA game advances to the second round against Wyoming (16-14) of the Mountain West Conference. Wyoming has a first-round bye.
Second-round games are scheduled for March 23-26.
The WNIT is composed of 11 automatic qualifying teams and 37 at-large programs, according to the tournament website womensnit.com.
The 11 automatic qualifying teams are: Colgate (18-13) from the Patriot League, Grambling (22-9) from the Southwestern Athletic Conference, Le Moyne (18-13) from Northeast Conference, Monmouth (21-9), from Coastal Athletic Association, Niagara (20-13) from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Northern Arizona (25-9) from the Big Sky, South Carolina Upstate (16-15) from the Big South Conference, Southern Indiana (24-6) from the Ohio Valley Conference, Stetson (17-14) from the Atlantic Sun Conference, University of Albany (25-6) from America East Conference and UNC Greensboro (21-11) from the Southern Conference.
Northern Arizona also has a first-round bye. The Lumberjacks play either South Dakota or the University of California Riverside in the second round.
Big Sky Conference member Montana (22-9) also received an at-large selection to the tournament. The Grizzlies host Boise State (21-13) at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the first round.
The third round is scheduled for March 27-29. The quarterfinals are March 30-April 1, with the semifinals scheduled for April 2-3. The championship game will be played at 3 p.m. Eastern Saturday, April 6, and will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network.