The season continues for the Oregon women’s basketball team and its five seniors.
Oregon learned Monday night they had earned an automatic bid to the Women’s National Invitational Tournament.
Oregon earned a bye for the first round and will play the winner of Thursday’s matchup between UC-Santa Barbara and San Diego. The WNIT committee is expected to know today which day Oregon will host the winner, with Saturday a likely choice.
The Ducks won their season opener at UCSB 85-77. Freshman guard Taylor Lilley had her highest-scoring game of the season with 27 points. UCSB ended its season 17-13 overall and second in the Big West Conference. San Diego finished its season 21-8 overall and second in the West Coast Conference.
Oregon received the automatic bid by way of USC, which finished fifth in the Pacific-10 Conference. Oregon was next in sixth place. USC earned the bid as the first team in the standings not selected for the NCAA Tournament, but turned it down.
The Emerald reached USC assistant coach Derek Wynn Monday night. Wynn said USC’s seniors chose to turn down a possible WNIT berth if the Trojans, a bubble team, failed to make the NCAA Tournament. Oregon coach Bev Smith had also spoken to USC coach Mark Trakh in recent weeks and he expressed similar sentiments.
Monday afternoon the NCAA Tournament brackets were revealed live on ESPN, and four teams made it from the Pac-10: Stanford, Arizona State, California and Washington.
USC, 17-13 overall and 10-8 in conference, had the WNIT bid waiting for them if they wanted it. The bid now goes to Oregon, which sits with a 16-13 overall record after losing to California in the first round of the Pac-10 Tournament.
“There was no question with our seniors,” said Smith when reached by phone Monday night. “They wanted to extend their season.”
Smith says the bye for the first round is welcome, although after a week of practices, Oregon is ready for their next opponent.
The WNIT matchup gives the seniors at least one more game at McArthur Court, but also has added benefits for its younger core of sophomore Tamika Nurse and freshmen Taylor Lilley and Micaela Cocks, Smith said.
“I think it serves a huge purpose and knock on wood, we’re pretty healthy,” Smith said. “I think we’re pretty excited to see this as a new season and see how far we can go.”
This is Oregon’s fourth appearance in the WNIT. The last time the Ducks made the tournament in 2002, they won five consecutive games that culminated with a 54-52 win in the championship game against Houston. Oregon also won the title in 1989.
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