The TCU women’s basketball team will continue post-season play against Oral Roberts University in an effort to cage the Golden Eagles and avoid elimination from the Women’s National Invitation Tournament. Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m. at the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum on Thursday.

During the ESPN NCAA selection show Monday, TCU was not one of the 64 college names revealed in the bracket. Senior guard Helena Sverrisdottir said the team watched just in case they made the tournament; however, they realized their odds of going to the big dance were low.

“As soon as we lost on Saturday, we kind of knew [making the NCAA tournament] was a really really distant dream,” Sverrisdottir said. “We knew we weren”t going to be in.”

Sverrisdottir said the team was excited that the WNIT will give them the opportunity to play more.

“There’s not a whole lot of teams in the country that are still playing right now… We”re just going to enjoy it,” Sverrisdottir said.

The WNIT is a 64-team, post-season basketball tournament that offers automatic berths to teams in each conference that finishes highest in the regular season conference standings yet does not reach the NCAA tournament. The WNIT also offers spots to teams with records above .500.

Although Sverrisdottir said she and the other seniors joked about not returning to the DMC for the WNIT, during senior night, the Iceland native said that she is happy to play another game in the DMC now that it’s her reality.

“We’ve had some great games in this gym,” Sverrisdottir said. “We don’t lose here a whole lot.”

During the 2010-2011 season, the Lady Frogs were 14-2 at home. They have won 35 of their last 37 home games at the DMC.

Their last outing

TCU’s last game, the 2011 Mountain West Conference Tournament finals at the Thomas & Mack Center, resulted in a 52-47 overtime loss to Utah (18-16, 7-9 MWC).

The Utes started the game on a 16-2 run. TCU managed to force overtime in the second half by limiting the Utes to a MWC tournament finals low, 12 points. However, the emotional and physical energy the Horned Frogs invested in the second half of the game didn’t carryover to overtime.

Oral Roberts

Oral Roberts (21-10) is home to the nation’s leader in both steals and scoring, sophomore Kevi Luper. She averages 23.9 points per game and 3.7 steals per game.

The Lady Eagle’s last outing was the semi-finals of the Summit League Conference Tournament. The top seeded eagles dropped a 96-62 decision to the fourth seeded Oakland despite Luper’s 24 points and 7 rebounds.