Cougars face Grizzlies in women’s NIT

With little time to spare, the Washington State women’s basketball team traveled Tuesday to Missoula to take on Montana tonight in the opening round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament.

Coach June Daugherty said her Cougars (17-16) practiced Tuesday morning before traveling to take on the Grizzlies (22-10), a team that hasn’t won a postseason game since 1995. The game is scheduled to tip off at 6 p.m.

“We knew it would be a quick turnaround,” Daugherty said. “Our team knows that they need to be ready to go.”

Montana will be without second-leading scorer Torry Hill, who injured her knee on March 15 in the championship game of the Big Sky Conference tournament. The Grizzlies lost that game 72-55 to North Dakota.

Hill averaged 12.8 points a game and had 76 steals for Montana, which had a 14-1 record for home games this season.

Washington State has a losing record, 9-10, at games that either were away or at neutral sites.

The Cougars team is one of four Pac-12 squads selected to the women’s NIT field of 64, including Colorado, Oregon and Washington.

The winner of the Washington State-Montana game would play the winner of the game between the Cal Poly Mustangs and San Diego Toreros in the second round.