2021 Women's National Invitation Tournament

The 2021 Women's National Invitation Tournament was a tournament of 32 NCAA Division I teams that were not selected to participate in the 2021 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament. The tournament committee announced the 32-team field on March 15, 2021, following the selection of the NCAA Tournament field. The tournament began on March 19, 2021, with the championship game on March 28, 2021. Rice won its first WNIT championship. All games were streamed on FloSports.^[1]

2021 Women's National Invitation Tournament

Season	2020–21
Teams	32
Finals site	My Town Movers Fieldhouse Collierville, Tennessee
Champions	Rice (1st title)
Runner-up	Ole Miss (1st title game)
Semifinalists	Delaware (1st semifinal) Northern Iowa (1st semifinal)
Winning coach	Tina Langley (1st title)
MVP	Nancy Mulkey (Rice)
Attendance	600 (championship game)
Women's National Invitation Tournaments «2020 2022»

Format changes

Changes were made in order to ensure continued viability for the tournament during the COVID-19 pandemic. The field of teams was halved from 64 to 32. Games were not held on-campus; instead there were regional sites. Each conference was not guaranteed an automatic bid as they have been in the past. Teams also were not required to have at least a .500 record.^[2][3][4][5]

Participants

The 2021 WNIT field consisted of nine automatic invitations and twenty-three at-large teams. Automatic bids were given to regular season conference champions that did not win their conference tournaments, except for WAC regular season and conference tournament champion California Baptist, since they are still in transition to Division I and are ineligible to participate in the NCAA Women's Tournament until 2023.

Automatic qualifiers Conference School Atlantic 10 Dayton Colonial Delaware C-USA Rice Mid-American Bowling Green Mountain West New Mexico Ohio Valley UT Martin Southern Samford Sun Belt Louisiana WAC California Baptist

At-large bids Conference School Pac-12 Arizona State C-USA Charlotte ACC Clemson Pac-12 Colorado Big East Creighton Big East DePaul Missouri Valley Drake SEC Florida Atlantic 10 Fordham Mountain West Fresno State AAC Houston Missouri Valley Illinois State Horizon Milwaukee SEC Missouri Big Ten Nebraska Missouri Valley Northern Iowa Mid-American Ohio SEC Ole Miss Atlantic 10 Saint Louis West Coast San Francisco AAC Tulane Atlantic 10 UMass Big East Villanova

Source:^[6]

Bracket

* – Denotes overtime period

Charlotte Regional – Charlotte, North Carolina

• Played at Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina.

	First round March 19					Second round March 20					Quarterfinals March 22
	Fordham		49
	Delaware		77
						Delaware		87
						Clemson		74
	Ohio		60
	Clemson		65
											Delaware		77
											Villanova		70
	Charlotte		65
	Florida		66
						Florida		57
						Villanova		77
	UMass		51
	Villanova		78

Consolation Games

	March 20					March 22
	Fordham		65
	Ohio		81
						Ohio		71
						UMass		95
	Charlotte		75
	UMass		81

Fort Worth Regional – Fort Worth, Texas

• Played at Wilkerson–Greines Activity Center in Fort Worth, Texas.

	First round March 19					Second round March 20					Quarterfinals March 22
	Arizona State		36
	Rice		48
						Rice		87
						Fresno State		73
	Fresno State		78
	Missouri		75
											Rice		79
											California Baptist		55
	San Francisco		71
	Houston		63
						San Francisco		82
						California Baptist		90
	California Baptist		90
	New Mexico		85

Consolation Games

	March 20					March 22
	Arizona State		50
	Missouri		39
						Arizona State		48
						Houston		50
	Houston
	New Mexico[A]

Memphis Regional – Collierville, Tennessee

• Played at My Town Movers Fieldhouse in Collierville, Tennessee.

	First round March 19					Second round March 20					Quarterfinals March 22
	UT Martin		46
	Nebraska		72
						Nebraska		71
						Colorado		75
	Louisiana		45
	Colorado		68
											Colorado		56
											Ole Miss		65
	Samford		45
	Ole Miss		64
						Ole Miss		72
						Tulane		61
	Illinois State		67
	Tulane		75

Consolation Games

	March 20					March 22
	UT Martin		58
	Louisiana		48
						UT Martin		64
						Illinois State		59
	Samford		62
	Illinois State		68

Rockford Regional – Rockford, Illinois

• Played at UW Health Sports Factory in Rockford, Illinois.

	First round March 19					Second round March 20					Quarterfinals March 22
	Northern Iowa		70
	Dayton		56
						Northern Iowa		64
						Creighton		63
	Creighton		72
	Bowling Green		65
											Northern Iowa		58
											Saint Louis		50
	Saint Louis		74
	DePaul		72
						Saint Louis		61
						Milwaukee		44
	Milwaukee		84
	Drake		46

Consolation Games

	March 20					March 22
	Dayton		76
	Bowling Green		77
						Bowling Green		68
						Drake		78
	DePaul		91
	Drake		100

Semifinals and Championship Game – Collierville, Tennessee

• Played at My Town Movers Fieldhouse in Collierville, Tennessee.

	Semifinals March 26					Championship Game March 28
	Delaware		75
	Rice		85
						Rice		71
						Ole Miss		58
	Ole Miss		60
	Northern Iowa		50

Semifinals

Rice scored the first six points in a semi final game against Delaware, but the blue hens responded to tie up the game at 12 points apiece. Shortly thereafter Rice went on an 11 – 0 run to open up a double-digit lead. Rice held a comfortable lead for most of the game although Delaware cut the lead to seven points in the final minute. Delaware was forced to foul and Rice made the free throws to extend the lead back to double digits, and finished with a 10 point win 85–75. Lauren Schwartz was the leading scorer for Rice with 25 points matched by Jasmine Dickey 25 points for Delaware. Rice hit 54% of their field goal attempts, and did even better beyond the arc hitting nine of 16 for 56%.^[8][9]

In the other semifinal, Mississippi pulled out to a small three point lead 14 – 11 little more than halfway through the first quarter but then held no than Iowa scoreless for about six minutes extending the lead to double digits 22–11. Mississippi continue to lead throughout the game and ending up winning by 10 points 60–50. the wind moved Mississippi into the title game, the first SEC team to advance to the WN night title game since Auburn won the tournament in 2003.^[10][11]

Friday, March 26, 2021 4:00 pm (CT)

Delaware 75, Rice 85
Scoring by quarter: 16–26, 10–18, 26–23, 23–18
Pts: 25 – Dickey Rebs: 13 – Dickey Asts: 4 – Dickey		Pts: 25 – Schwartz Rebs: 11 – Mulkey Asts: 7 – Wiggins

My Town Movers Fieldhouse Collierville, Tennessee Attendance: 300

Friday, March 26, 2021 7:00 pm (CT)

Ole Miss 60, Northern Iowa 50
Scoring by quarter: 20–11, 11–12, 18–14, 11–13
Pts: 18 – Austin Rebs: 11 – Scott Asts: 6 – Reid		Pts: 16 – Rucker Rebs: 8 – Maahs Asts: 5 – Rucker

My Town Movers Fieldhouse Collierville, Tennessee Attendance: 300

Championship

In the championship game, Rice led most of the game opening up a double-digit lead in the third quarter. in the fourth quarter Rice had a 14 point lead with just over seven minutes to go when Mississippi held Rice scoreless for three minutes and cut the lead to four points 58–54. Rice responded, outscoring the rebels 13–4 in the final four minutes of the game to win their first WNIT championship. Lauren Swarts and Nancy Mulkey each had 19 points for Rice. Shakira Austin had 25 points for Mississippi, the only Rebel player in double-digits.^[12][13]

Sunday, March 28, 2021 1:00 pm (CT)

Box score

Rice 71, Ole Miss 58
Scoring by quarter: 17–13, 17–10, 18–17, 19–18
Pts: 19 – Tied Rebs: 12 – Mulkey Asts: 6 – Wiggins		Pts: 25 – Austin Rebs: 9 – Austin Asts: 4 – Nesbitt

My Town Movers Fieldhouse Collierville, Tennessee Attendance: 600

All-tournament team

• Nancy Mulkey (Rice), MVP
• Lauren Schwartz (Rice)
• Shakira Austin (Ole Miss)
• Donnetta Johnson (Ole Miss)
• Jasmine Dickey (Delaware)
• Kam Finley (Northern Iowa)

Source:^[14]

See also

• 2021 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament
• 2021 Women's Basketball Invitational
• 2021 National Invitation Tournament

Notes

1. Game declared no contest. Houston advances in tournament.^[7]

References

1. "Regional sites selected for 2021 Postseason WNIT". Women's NIT. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
2. "How college basketball's WNIT event will play-out in Rockford". WTVO. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
3. "WNIT regional coming to Bojangles Coliseum". WSOC-TV. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
4. "Why Collierville High School will host the WNIT's Memphis Regional basketball". The Commercial Appeal. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
5. "Fort Worth to host regional round of Women's NIT". Fort Worth Business Press. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
6. "2021 field announced for 32-team Postseason WNIT". womensnit.com. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
7. Koso, Kyle (March 20, 2021). "VWNIT Region Recap: Fort Worth • March 20". womensnit.com. Retrieved March 28, 2021.
8. "Rice - Delaware boxscore". ESPN. Archived from the original on April 29, 2021.
9. "Hot-shooting Rice moves past Delaware in WNIT semis". womensnit.com. Retrieved April 29, 2021.
10. "Mississippi - Northern Iowa Boxscore". ESPN. Archived from the original on April 29, 2021.
11. "Defense Shuts Down UNI, Ole Miss Advances to WNIT Title Game". Ole Miss Athletics. Retrieved April 29, 2021.
12. "Rice beats Ole Miss for WNIT title". Antelope Valley Press. Associated Press. Retrieved April 29, 2021.
13. "Rice - Mississippi play by play". ESPN. Archived from the original on April 29, 2021.
14. Koso, Kyle. "Rice storms by Ole Miss to claim WNIT title behind Mulkey, Schwartz". womensnit.com. Archived from the original on March 29, 2021. Retrieved March 28, 2021.

External links

• Official website