CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - The Chattanooga Mocs Women's Basketball team is set to begin its first-ever appearance in the WBIT on Thursday night at North Dakota State, the No. 1 seed in its portion of the bracket. Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m. Eastern from Fargo. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ and available to audio stream on WFLI 96.1 FM/100.3 FM/1070 AM.

Game Day Information
Chattanooga (20-10, 10-4 SoCon) at #1 North Dakota State (28-4, 15-1 Summit)
Date: Thursday | March 19
Time: 8:00 p.m. 
Site: Fargo, N.D. | Scheels Center

About The WBIT
The Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT) is in its third year of existence and is a 32-team national tournament. It is made up of regular-season conference champions who did not receive bids to the NCAA Tournament, and other quality teams that missed out on an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. First-round games will be played on the 19th, with second-round games to follow on March 22. The Semifinal and Championship games are scheduled for March 30 and April 1 in Wichita, Kansas. 

The ACC and Big 12 lead all conferences with four schools participating in this year's WBIT. The Mocs are one of 18 mid-major programs in the field. 

Series Notes
Chattanooga and North Dakota State are meeting for the first time on Thursday night. It is also the first time the Mocs have played a game in North Dakota. 

The town of Holton, Kansas, will be tuned in on Thursday night as Mocs Head Coach Deandra Schirmer and NDSU Head Coach Jory Collins are both from there. 

What's Next?
If Chattanooga wins, it will play either No. 4 St. John's or Columbia on Sunday, more than likely in New York City, in the Round of 16. Use this link to view the Full Bracket. 

Scouting North Dakota State
The Bison come into this game with a 28-4 record and were 15-1 in league play to win the Summit League Regular Season. However, after losing to South Dakota State in the Summit Championship Game, NDSU found itself among the First Four Out in the NCAA Tournament, thereby becoming a No. 1 seed in the WBIT. 

On its home court this season, the Bison hold an 11-2 record, with its lone losses coming to Gonzaga and South Dakota State. Earlier in the season, NDSU went on a 23-game winning streak from November 21 through February 21. The Bison is best known for its offense, as it averages 79.2 points per game, which ranks 19th in the country. It is outscoring opponents by an average of 20.3 points per game, ranking eighth in the nation. NDSU ranks 20th in the country in 3-point percentage at 36%. 

The Bison are led by forward Avery Koenen, who averaged a double-double with 19.5 points per game and 10.9 rebounds per game. Koenen had 20 double-doubles on the year, ranking seventh in college basketball. She was recently named the Summit League Player of the Year and All-America Honorable Mention by the Associated Press. 

Marisa Frost, a guard from Portland, Oregon, is another offensive threat for the Bison, scoring 13 points per game. Forward Karrington Asp and guard Jocelyn Shiller are two other scorers for NDSU, averaging just over 10 points a game. 

Scouting Chattanooga
Chattanooga will have had 11 days off since its loss in the SoCon Championship game to Samford when it takes the court at the Scheels Center on Thursday night. The Mocs go into the WBIT with a 20-10 record and a SoCon Regular Season Championship to their name. 

Chattanooga's best basketball this season was played in the first part of the conference season, as it started league play 8-0, part of a 12-game winning streak that dated back to a nonconference win vs. Bellarmine on December 7.

Despite falling short in Asheville at the SoCon Tournament, the Mocs broke the Tournament record for most 3-pointers made with 34 across three games. Chattanooga led the SoCon in both field goal percentage at 42.1% and 3-point percentage at 32.7%. Moving to rebounding, UTC led the league in rebounds per game during SoCon play with 39 per game. 

Chattanooga is led by SoCon Player of the Year, Caia Elisaldez, who led the league in scoring at 16.5 points per game and assists at 5.2 per game. Gianna Corbitt, who was a First-Team All-SoCon player, is right behind Elisaldez statistically at 15.6 points per game and 8.4 rebounds per game, ranking second in the league in both categories. Izzy McPherson had a strong Conference Tournament, averaging 10.3 points per game and making 9 triples for the tournament. She was named to the SoCon All-Freshman Team.

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