The women’s basketball team will begin its regular season at home Saturday against Indiana State.
The team is coming off two home exhibition game wins. K-State opened with an 81-68 victory over Fort Hays State on Nov. 3 and followed up with an 89-61 win against Pittsburg State six days later.
“We’re excited,” said junior guard Shalin Spani. “It’s something we’ve all worked for.”
Spani had to sit out the final games of her sophomore season due to a knee injury. She said she had to work hard and put forth extra effort to get back to where she was before her injury.
Spani said the team was surprised the season has already arrived.
“Defensively, we’re a fairly young team,” said head coach Deb Patterson. A majority of the team consists of freshmen and sophomores.
Freshman guard Mariah White said she felt the team performed better in the second exhibition game than the first. She also said she is looking forward to playing Indiana State this weekend.
“It’s a lot of fun to play a D-1 team,” White said. “We’ll see how we match up.”
Patterson said the young Wildcats will not be able to afford mental mistakes as the season gets underway.
“We’re going to have to be a team that takes care of the basketball,” she said.
Patterson also said she expects Indiana State to be a highly competitive team and predicts that the team will be ranked within the top-five in the Missouri Valley Conference.
Tipoff is at 7 p.m. in Bramlage Coliseum.