EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Southern Indiana Women's Basketball makes its first appearance in the Super Sixteen round of the Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) Thursday at 6 p.m. when the Screaming Eagles host the University at Buffalo inside Liberty Arena.
 
Tickets to Thursday's game are on sale at usiscreamingeagles.com and through the USI Ticket Office. Tickets are only $12 for the Super Sixteen matchup. Thursday's theme is to white out Liberty Arena, encouraging fans to wear their white USI apparel. USI students receive free admission and the first 250 USI students will receive a free white t-shirt thanks to Indiana Members Credit Union.
 
Thursday's game can be seen live with a subscription to ESPN+. 95.7 FM The Spin and 97.7 FM WREF will have radio coverage.
 
The 27^th edition of the Postseason WNIT, powered by Triple Crown Sports and first held in 1998, started with a 48-team field but is now down to 16 teams remaining in the tournament. The tournament field consisted of automatic qualifiers and at-large programs, flexing a mix of Power 4 conferences as well as ascending mid-major programs. All games are played at individual schools.
 
Southern Indiana (23-12, 12-8 OVC) is in the WNIT for the second year in a row but is making its first appearance in the Super Sixteen. Last year, USI made it to the second round in its WNIT debut.
 
Following a first-round bye, the Screaming Eagles defeated Campbell University in the second round of the WNIT last Sunday at Liberty Arena, 60-51. The contest was a scrappy defensive battle with both teams shooting below 35 percent from the field. However, USI went 19-20 for 95 percent at the foul line and made the Fighting Camels cough up 18 turnovers to only USI's 12. Southern Indiana also finished with an advantage in points in the paint (+12) and points off turnovers (+9). Individually, graduate forward Meredith Raley led USI and matched a game-high 20 points. Fellow graduate forward Madi Webb also notched double figures with 13 points.
 
This season, Raley has scored double digits in 29 games and 20 or more points in eight outings. Raley has scored 10-plus points in the last eight contests and 20-plus points in three of the last four games for USI.
 
Overall, Raley leads the team at 14.5 points per game. Senior guard Vanessa Shafford is second on the squad with 12.1 points per outing. Junior guard Ali Saunders is third on the team at 10.5 points per game. Saunders, an OVC leader in assists, has 12 games this year with six or more assists. The guard has dished out seven or more assists in each of the last four games.
 
Collectively, USI had a top-three scoring offense (71.8) and scoring defense (63.4) in the OVC. The Eagles topped the OVC in field-goal percentage (44.5) and field-goal percentage defense (38.8).
 
Buffalo (26-7, 13-5 MAC), who also had a first-round bye in the tournament, heads into Thursday's matchup off an 84-82 overtime win in the second round of the WNIT against the University of Massachusetts. In a wild second half, the Bulls rallied from a 16-point deficit entering the fourth quarter against UMass to force overtime and then outscored UMass 10-8 in the extra period.
 
On Sunday, five Bulls scored in double figures, led by graduate guard Chellia Watson who scored a game-high 26 points, including the 2,000th of her career. Graduate guard Lani Cornfield recorded a double-double with 12 points and 15 assists.
 
This season, Watson paces the Bulls with 20.5 points per game. Cornfield is third at 10.7 points per game and leads the team with 5.8 assists and 2.4 steals per game. Sophomore guard Kirsten Lewis-Williams is second in scoring 13.5 points and is the top rebounder at 5.4 boards per contest.
 
The Bulls led the Mid-American Conference in scoring offense (73.5) and field goal percentage (.461) while also ranking in the top three in the MAC in scoring defense (60.2), field goal defense (.386), and three-point defense (.286).
 
Thursday will be the first-ever meeting between Southern Indiana and Buffalo.
 
The winner of Thursday's game between USI and Buffalo will face the winner of Rutgers University and the College of Charleston in the Great 8 at a location and time to be announced. Rutgers and Charleston also play Thursday at the same time as USI and Buffalo.
 
Here's the 2025 schedule for each round:
Round 1 - March 20-22, 2025
Round 2 - March 23-25, 2025
Super 16 - March 26-28, 2025
Great 8 - March 29-31, 2025
Fab 4 - April 1-2, 2025
Championship - Saturday, April 5, 2025 at 3 p.m. ET (CBS Sports Network)
 
Fans can follow the 2025 Postseason WNIT through X/Twitter (@WomensNIT), Facebook (womensNIT), and the hashtag #WNIT.
 
Stay tuned to usiscreamingeagles.com and @USIAthletics on social media for more information.