By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

Western Illinois’ women’s basketball team got a chance to extend its season, but coach JD Gravina wanted to make sure his players wanted to keep going.

The answer, Gravina said, was an “overwhelming ‘Yes.’”

The Leathernecks not only got to play in a postseason tournament, they’ll be the host for the first round of the WNIT in a 6 p.m. game against Lipscomb on Thursday at Western Hall.

“It gives your fans another chance to watch your team and just kind of build some excitement, like you’re doing something a little bit special,” Gravina said. “You’re in a postseason tournament, you get to put this season up on a banner. “So I think it definitely means a lot to our team and even our community.” 

The Leathernecks (16-16) thought their season was over after a loss to Lindenwood in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament semifinals on March 7. At 16-16, Gravina didn’t think his team would qualify for the WBIT, a postseason tournament run by the NCAA, or the WNIT.

“You start working on that stuff with a few weeks left in the season — filling out the documentation, and if you’re going to be the host, everything,” Gravina said. “And we did get an email that we were in the group that was under consideration. At that point, we had a losing record and I said we’re not going to get in, so don’t bother doing the paperwork.”

Then came a notification over the weekend that Western Illinois still was under consideration, so the paperwork was filled out and returned. But before Gravina would accept a bid, he wanted to gauge the interest of his players.

“Some teams, I think, would not be excited to get to keep playing right after you think it’s over,” Gravina said. “And so I did kind of talk to just a few of the players to get a feel if we would still be excited to play. Would this be something the team wanted to do? And they were excited.”

When the WNIT field was originally announced Sunday night, though, the Leathernecks weren’t on it.

“Then about 10 p.m., we get a call saying a team had backed out, and would we still want to play and would we want to host,” Gravina said. “We said we would. (Athletics director) Paul (Bubb) was very supportive, and so we said we would do it.”

The players were returning from spring break on Sunday night, so Gravina sent them text messages telling them of the invitation as well as when the Leathernecks would be practicing.

“Kennedy Flanagan (a fifth-year forward), joked that she had already cleaned out her locker,” Gravina said. “Some of them probably had that feeling that everything was over for the year, and then all of the sudden you get a text saying there’s practice on Monday. I told them it was OK if they were feeling weird about that, but it didn’t seem like anyone was. They had a lot of fun being out on the court playing together again.”

Any postseason bid, Gravina said, is good for a program like Western Illinois. It’s the Leathernecks’ first postseason bid since the 2018 team went to the WNIT.

“We went to the WBI in 2016, and a year later we played in the NCAA Tournament,” he said. “It’s something that can really spark your program. There’s a lot of exciting things about it, where you can kind of scratch off another goal or another accomplishment.”

Lipscomb (20-11) finished third in the ASUN Conference.

“They’re a lot like us, which is kind of cool, because it should be a fun game,” Gravina said. “They play very up and down. They shoot threes, they play a lot of five-out motion. What you kind of don’t want in a draw is like a team that’s gonna slow it down, play real physical and try to make it an ugly game. You want to be able to have fun playing this game and put on a good show for your fans. So in that way, I really like the draw.”

The Leathernecks are playing when they thought their season was done.

“From our team’s perspective, it’s just kind of nice,” Gravina said. “We ended so well, it’s just nice to be able to lace them up one more time together.”

Photo: Western Illinois’ Mallory McDermott looks for an opening in the Eastern Illinois defense during the Ohio Valley Conference tournament. (Photo courtesy of the OVC).