NEW YORK CITY — Hello, New York City.

The Shockers are in the Big Apple.

Despite missing the NCAA Tournament for  the first time in seven seasons, Wichita State has advanced to the semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament in Madison Square Garden in its second appearance since 2011 when the team won it all.

Gregg Marshall and his inexperienced group of Shockers — the fifth-least experienced team in Division I basketball — became the first team to advance to the tournament semifinals by way of beating the No. 1, 2, and 3 seeds. Wichita State punched its ticket to the semifinals after beating top-seed Indiana in Bloomington on Tuesday.

Now, the Shockers will face the Lipscomb Bisons (which is grammatically incorrect, as Bison is already plural). The Bisons of the Atlantic Suns Conference clinched an automatic bid to the National Invitational Tournament after sharing the regular-season conference title with Liberty. After sitting on the bubble of the NCAA Tournament, Lipscomb fell short of an automatic bid, losing to Liberty in the title conference tournament title game.

Lipscomb (28-7) defeated two-seed North Carolina State in a 94-93 thriller in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Lipscomb, a tournament five-seed, beat No. 4 Davidson, and No. 1 UNC-Greensboro before knocking off NC State. Standing in Wichita State’s way is Lipscomb’s Garrison Matthews, the Bisons’ leading scorer. He needed to drop 44 of Lipscomb’s 94 points to advance the team to a win in the semifinals.

Matthews, a 6-foot-5 guard, shoots 45 percent from the floor and is a fan of the 3-pointer. He’s hit 110 from deep this season. Outside of the sharp-shooting senior, no one on the Bisons has hit more than 50 threes this season.

Lipscomb scores a lot — an average of 83 points per game. That’s good for seventh in the country.

The Bisons’ high-powered offense shoots 48 percent from the field, 37 percent from 3-point distance. It’s the 42nd best in the country in terms of offense. That said, the team also allows plenty of scoring against it, too. Wichita State will rely on the high-scoring efficiency of Markis McDuffie, who leads the team in scoring. Dexter Dennis, a freshman, has shown flashes of offensive firepower in NIT games, as have Asbjørn Midtgaard and Jaime Echenique. Wichita State will look to use a noticeable size advantage against the Bisons, who bring no player taller than 6-foot-9.

The first game of the semifinals will tip at 6 p.m. CT Tuesday from Madison Square Garden. ESPN will broadcast the game.