When the NCAA did not select the UA women's basketball team to play in the Tournament on March 10, the players left their annual fund- raising banquet knowing one thing € they were still hungry.

Luckily for Arizona, the National Women's Invitation Tournament committee selected the Wildcats to compete in their tournament, giving them one final chance to feed their passion to play.

The Wildcats (19-8 overall, 10-8 in the Pacific 10 Conference) will square off against the Hilltoppers of Western Kentucky (18-11, 11-3 in the Sun Belt Conference) in the first round of the NWIT at noon today. It will be the first of three games the Wildcats play in Amarillo, Texas. Regardless of the outcome, the team will play tomorrow and Saturday as well.

The Wildcats received their invitation to the tournament after failing to make the NCAA field last week. It is Arizona's first postseason berth of any kind. Western Kentucky, on the other hand, will be playing in its 13th-straight postseason.

The Wildcats and the Hilltoppers took two different routes to get into the tournament. Arizona played lesser nonconference opponents and competed in a tougher overall conference. Western Kentucky played tough nonconference opponents but competed in a lesser overall conference. Both teams enter the tournament trying to prove they belonged in the NCAAs.

"We want to show the rest of the nation that we are a team to be reckoned with," Arizona point guard Brenda Pantoja said. "We definitely want to use this as an opportunity to show that we were deserving of the NCAA Tournament. Having three more games is very gratifying."

The Hilltoppers are led by senior point guard Dawn Warner, who averages 14.1 points and 5.4 rebounds per game. She is one of five 3-point bombers Western Kentucky has. In fact, the Hilltoppers have the nation's longest 3-point streak, making at least one trey in the last 59 games. Hilltopper freshman forward Shea Lunsford adds some support on the post, putting up 11.4 points and grabbing a team-high 6.6 rebounds per game. Western Kentucky generally plays solid defense and a slow-down offense with good perimeter play.

"This is going to be a battle," Pantoja said. "They try to slow you down and take you out of your game. I think that we will be able to take advantage of the fact that we have never played by getting out and running."

Arizona will have two of its star players matched up against Warner and Lunsford. Pantoja, who will match up against Warner, is second in the team in scoring with 13.2 points per game. She also leads the nation in assists with 9.1 per game. Adia Barnes will be matched up with Lunsford down low. Barnes averages a team-leading 16.9 points and 7.5 rebounds.

Arizona senior Andrea Constand may have an advantage in the other forward position. WKU freshman forward Heather Mayes averages just 4.8 points and 2.1 rebounds per game compared to Constand's 13.0 points and 4.9 rebounds.

The NWIT features eight teams, with four games played on each of the three days. The four winners from Thursday will play each other in two of the games on Friday, while the losers play in the other two. Winners of both first- and second-round games will play in the championship game on Saturday at 7 p.m. The other schools will play in consolation games.

UA received a fifth seed in the field of eight. The rest of the field is as follows: No. 1 Arkansas, No. 2 Northwestern, No. 3 Louisiana State, No. 4 WKU, No. 6 UC-Santa Barbara, No. 7 Illinois State and No. 8 Princeton.