Women's Basketball | March 12

DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University women's basketball team was selected to the 2023 Women's Basketball Invitational on Sunday night, sending the Huskies to a national postseason tournament for the first time since 2017. NIU is one of eight teams selected to play in the 13th edition of the WBI.

"We are excited and thankful for the opportunity to play in the WBI," said head coach Lisa Carlsen. "This team has done a lot of great things this season and beaten some really good teams. We look forward to having another chance to compete together and show what we can do."

The tournament runs Friday through Sunday (March 17-19) at the Clive M. Beck Center on the campus of Transylvania University in Lexington, Ky. The Huskies will play Georgia Southern on Friday, March 17 at 6:30 p.m. CT in the final game of the first day of the event. Georgia Southern is 20-8 on the season and went 12-6 in the Sun Belt.

NIU (16-14, 8-10 MAC) will play either California Baptist or North Dakota on Saturday, March 18 with start time at either 4 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. Cal Baptist finished third in the Western Athletic Conference with a 13-5 league record and are 19-13 on the year. North Dakota also finished third in its league, the Summit League, and are 18-11 this season.

The top half of the bracket includes East Tennessee State, FIU, UIC and New Mexico State. NIU will play one of those teams on Sunday, March 19.

All games will be streamed on www.watchwbi.com at a cost of $10 per day. Tickets will be available at the door and can be purchased for $20 per day. For more information and further updates, please check the official WBI website at www.womensbasketballinvitational.com and on Twitter (@PostseasonWBI).

This is the Huskies' first appearance in the WBI. NIU took on South Dakota State in the 2017 WNIT after reaching that season's MAC Tournament championship game. In the 1990s, NIU made five NCAA Tournament appearances, including four consecutive from 1992-95 and one in the National Women's Invitational Tournament in 1991.

--NIU--