PROVO, Utah, March 17, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — The BYU women’s basketball team has been invited to complete in the inaugural Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament and will face Santa Clara on Thursday.
The Cougars (16-16 overall, 6-12 Big 12 Conference) will travel to Santa Clara, California, to face the fourth-seeded Broncos (24-8, 12-4 West Coast) in the 32-team WBIT. Game time has not yet been announced.
“We are really excited to extend our season and play in the first-ever WBIT,” BYU head coach Amber Whiting said. “Playing in the postseason is always a goal for our program and we are excited for the opportunity to see how much better we can get in the next three weeks.”
Lauren Gustin, a 6-foot-1 senior forward, leads the Cougars into the postseason following a 10th-place finish in BYU’s first season in the Big 12.
The former Salem Hills High School and Salt Lake Community College star was the sixth-leading scorer in the Big 12 with 17.4 points per game and led the conference with 15.3 rebounds per game.
BYU bowed out in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament with a 77-53 loss to Kansas. During the regular season, the Cougars earned wins over No. 18 Baylor, Texas Tech and fellow Big 12 newcomers Cincinnati, Houston and UCF.
Santa Clara has posted the second-most wins in program history this season with 24, trailing only the 1990-91 team that went 28-3 and won the WNIT.
The Broncos are led by All-WCC First Team selections Tess Heal and Olivia Pollerd, who average 19.6 and 15.2 points per game, respectively.
The WBIT was created by the NCAA following a recommendation from the 2021 Gender Equity Report. Along with the 68-team NCAA Tournament, the WBIT will provide the opportunity for 100 women’s basketball programs to compete in the postseason.
The field includes the “First Four Out,” as determined by the Division I Women’s Basketball Committee, which receive automatic bids as the top four overall seeds. Regular-season champions of any Division I conference not selected to the NCAA Tournament also receive automatic bids to the WBIT.
The remainder of the field is filled with at-large selections as determined by the eight-member WBIT selection committee.
