2022 Women's National Invitation Tournament

2022 Women's National Invitation Tournament
Season	2021–22
Teams	64
Finals site	Frost Arena; Brookings, South Dakota
Champions	South Dakota State (1st title)
Runner-up	Seton Hall (1st title game)
Semifinalists	UCLA (2nd semifinal); Middle Tennessee (1st semifinal);
Winning coach	Aaron Johnston (1st title)
MVP	Myah Selland (South Dakota State)
Attendance	5,263 (championship game)
Women's National Invitation Tournaments
«2021	2023»

The 2022 Women's National Invitation Tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 64 NCAA Division I Women's college basketball teams that were not selected for the field of the 2022 Women's NCAA tournament. The tournament committee announced the 64-team field on March 13, following the selection of the NCAA Tournament field. The tournament started March 16 and ended on April 2 with the championship game televised by CBSSN.^[1] The tournament was won by the South Dakota State Jackrabbits.

Participants

The 2022 Postseason WNIT field consists of 32 teams that receive automatic berths – one berth from each conference – and 32 at-large teams.^[2] Three conferences (Big Ten, Big 12, SWAC) rejected their bids. All Division I teams will be considered for at-large berths, including those who are independent and/or are in the transition process of reaching full NCAA Division I status. The automatic berth will go to the team that is the highest-finishing team in its conference's regular-season standings not selected for an NCAA Tournament berth, though some of these teams may still receive an at-large berth into the NCAA women's basketball tournament. The remaining team slots will be filled by the top teams available.

Until Selection Sunday, the highest ranked team that failed to win its conference tournament was placed as the automatic qualifier. If they were selected for the NCAA Tournament, they were replaced with the team next selected.^[3]

Automatic qualifiers

Conference	School
America East	Maine
American	Tulane
Atlantic 10	Rhode Island
ASUN	Jacksonville State
ACC	Boston College
Big East	Marquette
Big Sky	Idaho State
Big South	Campbell
Big West	UC Irvine
Colonial	Drexel
C-USA	Louisiana Tech
Horizon League	Youngstown State
Ivy League	Columbia
MAAC	Quinnipiac
MAC	Toledo
MEAC	Norfolk State
Missouri Valley	Southern Illinois
Mountain West	New Mexico
Northeast	Fairleigh Dickinson
Ohio Valley	Tennessee Tech
Pac-12	UCLA
Patriot League	Holy Cross
SEC	Missouri
Southern	Wofford
Southland	Houston Baptist
Summit League	South Dakota State
Sun Belt	Troy
West Coast	San Francisco
WAC	Grand Canyon

At-large bids

Conference	School
Mountain West	Air Force
MAC	Akron
SEC	Alabama
MAC	Ball State
Patriot League	Bucknell
WAC	California Baptist
Mountain West	Colorado State
Missouri Valley	Drake
Atlantic 10	Fordham
Horizon League	Green Bay
American	Houston
MAC	Kent State
Summit	Kansas City
ASUN	Liberty
Big West	Long Beach State
C-USA	Middle Tennessee
Big Ten	Minnesota
Ohio Valley	Murray State
Missouri Valley	Northern Iowa
C-USA	North Texas
MAC	Ohio
C-USA	Old Dominion
Pac-12	Oregon State
WCC	Portland
Big Ten	Purdue
West Coast	San Diego
Big East	Seton Hall
American	SMU
America East	Stony Brook
Colonial	Towson
American	Tulsa
SEC	Vanderbilt
A10	VCU
ACC	Wake Forest
Mountain West	Wyoming

Bracket

* – Denotes overtime period

Region 1

Round 1 March 16–18		Round 2 March 20–21		Round 3 March 24		Quarterfinals March 27

Long Beach State	59
Oregon State	70	Oregon State	74
Colorado State	63	Portland	56
Portland	72			Oregon State	78
San Diego	76			New Mexico	73
California Baptist	67	San Diego	69
Grand Canyon	72	New Mexico	73
New Mexico	92					Oregon State	66
Idaho State	73					UCLA	74
Wyoming	76	Wyoming	97***
Tulsa	75	Tulsa	90
North Texas	62			Wyoming	81
Air Force	64			UCLA	82***
San Francisco	60	Air Force	45
UC Irvine	48	UCLA	61
UCLA	61

Region 2

Round 1 March 16–18		Round 2 March 20–21		Round 3 March 24		Quarterfinals March 28

Maine	44
Boston College	69	Boston College	94
Quinnipiac	61	Quinnipiac	68
Rhode Island	50			Boston College	51
Old Dominion	72			Columbia	54
Towson	66	Old Dominion	59
Holy Cross	69	Columbia	62
Columbia	80					Columbia	75
Fairleigh Dickinson	45					Seton Hall	78
Seton Hall	67	Seton Hall	70
Stony Brook	48	VCU	67
VCU	56			Seton Hall	78
Norfolk State	47			Drexel	71
Drexel	54	Drexel	61
Bucknell	73	Bucknell	58
Fordham	64

Region 3

Round 1 March 16–18		Round 2 March 20–21		Round 3 March 24		Quarterfinals March 27

Ohio	57
South Dakota State	87	South Dakota State	78
Minnesota	73	Minnesota	57
Green Bay	65			South Dakota State	84
Drake	83*			Drake	66
Missouri	78	Drake	62
Kansas City	58	Northern Iowa	55
Northern Iowa	75					South Dakota State	78
Alabama	82					Alabama	73
Troy	79	Alabama	81
Jacksonville State	36	Tulane	77
Tulane	80			Alabama	79
Houston	63			Houston	64
Louisiana Tech	52	Houston	62
Tennessee Tech	73	Tennessee Tech	55
SMU	62

Region 4

Round 1 March 16–18		Round 2 March 20–21		Round 3 March 24		Quarterfinals March 28

Ball State	70
Marquette	93	Marquette	77
Southern Illinois	60	Purdue	62
Purdue	82			Marquette	82
Houston Baptist	51			Toledo	92
Toledo	61	Toledo	79
Kent State	68	Kent State	59
Youngstown State	59					Toledo	71
Akron	59					Middle Tennessee	73*
Wake Forest	71	Wake Forest	55
Wofford	56	Middle Tennessee	67
Middle Tennessee	86			Middle Tennessee	55
Murray State	47			Vanderbilt	53
Vanderbilt	73	Vanderbilt	71
Campbell	44	Liberty	45
Liberty	50

Semifinals and Championship Game

Semifinals March 31		Championship April 2 CBSSN

Seton Hall	74

Middle Tennessee	73
		Seton Hall	50

		South Dakota State	82
UCLA	59

South Dakota State	62

Game summaries

Semifinals

ESPN3

March 31
7:30 pm EDT

Seton Hall Pirates 74, Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders 73
Scoring by quarter: 16–14, 22–12, 19–24, 17–23
Pts: Cooks, 28 Rebs: Cooks, 7 Asts: Park-Lane, 10		Pts: Malashka, 25 Rebs: Malashka, 9 Asts: Blakely, 4

Murphy Center
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Attendance: 4,022
Referees: Felicia Grinter, Brian Hall, Nykesha Thompson

ESPN3

March 31
8:00 pm EDT

UCLA Bruins 59, South Dakota State Jackrabbits 62
Scoring by quarter: 15–12, 10–15, 15–13, 19–22
Pts: Thomas, 24 Rebs: Horvat, 6 Asts: Osborne, 8		Pts: Selland, 24 Rebs: Timmer, 9 Asts: Greer, 2

Frost Arena
Brookings, South Dakota
Attendance: 5,227
Referees: Doug Knight, Kim Hobbs, DeMoya Williams

Championship game

CBSSN

April 2
3:00 pm EDT

Seton Hall Pirates 50, South Dakota State Jackrabbits 82
Scoring by quarter: 7-25, 11-15, 13-22, 19-20
Pts: Cooks, 14 Rebs: Cooks, 9 Asts: Park-Lane, 4		Pts: Theisen, 16 Rebs: Theisen & Selland, 11 Asts: Selland, 5

Frost Arena
Brookings, South Dakota
Attendance: 5,263

All-tournament team

Myah Selland (South Dakota State), MVP
Haleigh Timmer (South Dakota State)
Sidney Cooks (Seton Hall)
Lauren Park-Lane (Seton Hall)
Ilmar’l Thomas (UCLA)
Kseniya Malashka (Middle Tennessee)

Source:^[4]

References

^ "Tournament officials gearing up for 2022 Postseason WNIT". womensnit.com. WNIT. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
^ "Postseason WNIT Field". WNIT. TripleCrownSports. February 10, 2019. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
^ "2022 WNIT Event Info". WNIT.
^ "South Dakota State in control start-to-finish, wins 2022 Postseason WNIT title". womensnit.com. Retrieved April 2, 2022.

[1] "Tournament officials gearing up for 2022 Postseason WNIT". womensnit.com. WNIT. Retrieved February 8, 2022.

[2] "Postseason WNIT Field". WNIT. TripleCrownSports. February 10, 2019. Retrieved March 7, 2022.

[3] "2022 WNIT Event Info". WNIT.

[4] "South Dakota State in control start-to-finish, wins 2022 Postseason WNIT title". womensnit.com. Retrieved April 2, 2022.

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