HENDERSON, Nev. — The University of Hawai'i women's basketball team will remain in the Ninth Island to continue its season and will face UNLV in the first round of the Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament on Thursday, March 20 in Las Vegas.
 
The bracket for the 32-team event was announced on Sunday. The Rainbow Wahine (22-9) earned an automatic berth into the field as the Big West regular-season champion and will face the Lady Rebels (25-7) in their second appearance in the WBIT. Tipoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Pacific Time (3:30 p.m. Hawai'i Time) at UNLV's Cox Pavilion.
 
The 'Bows competed in the Big West Championship in Henderson, Nev., last week and remained in Nevada through the weekend.
 
The first three rounds of the WBIT will be played at campus sites. The semifinals and final will be played at Butler University's Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Ind., on March 31 and April 2.
 
The winner of the UH-UNLV game will face Florida or Northern Iowa in the second round on Sunday, March 23.
 
UH will make its fourth straight postseason tournament appearance, ninth under head coach Laura Beeman, and 20^th overall. The 'Bows have made eight appearances in the NCAA Tournament, 10 in the Women's National Invitation Tournament, and last year's inaugural WBIT. The current four-year streak of postseason appearances matches the longest in program history (2000-03 and 2013-16).
 
UH went 16-4 in Big West play this season, including a 14-game winning streak, to claim the conference's regular-season title for the third time in the last four seasons. The 'Bows reached the 20-win mark for the 18^th time in program history and fifth time in Beeman's 13-year tenure at UH.
 
UH is 6-21 in postseason play overall and last won a postseason game in 2001 when the 'Bows went 3-1 in the WNIT and advanced to the semifinals. The 'Bows closed last season with a loss to California in the first round of the inaugural WBIT.

UNLV went 16-2 in conference play to capture the Mountain West regular-season championship. The Lady Rebels then fell to San Diego State in the Mountain West Championship semifinals on March 11. UNLV leads the all-time series between the programs 34-16 and won the last meeting 76-66 on Dec. 11, 2022 in Honolulu.
 
WBIT committee seeded the top half of the 32-team field. The remaining 16 teams were placed into the bracket by the WBIT Committee as close to their area of natural interest as possible.
 
Preliminary WBIT games will be broadcast on ESPN+, while the semifinals will be televised on ESPNU, and the finals on ESPN2. Additional WBIT information can be found on ncaa.com/WBIT.