After suffering a 35-point loss to No. 1 Baylor last Saturday, No. 23/22 K-State women’s basketball (13-5, 4-2 Big 12 Conference) is looking to get back on track during conference season play as they take on the Iowa State Cyclones (10-7, 1-5) tonight at 7 in Bramlage Coliseum.
The last time the two teams met up was last March in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship, and K-State came away with a close win of 56-53 over the Cyclones.
While Iowa State is 1-5 in the Big 12 Conference season, K-State head coach Deb Patterson said she does not take the Cyclones conference record lightly, and her players know that no wins come easy in the Big 12.
“I think their record right now might just be a reflection of how the schedule played out early for them,” K-State head coach Deb Patterson said. “I thought they looked unbelievably dominant and confident yesterday at home, so in this league, you can’t be fooled by anybody’s record, you have to understand that the talent they’ll bring to the floor.”
Iowa State took on Texas Tech on Sunday, and dominated 66-49 for their first Conference win.
The Cyclones will come prepared tonight, and with a key player like junior forward Chelsea Poppens, whom Patterson described as the “toughest, most blue-collar player we’ll play in the posts this year,” K-State’s offense will have a challenge on their hands as Poppens averages a huge 11.4 rebounds per game.
After shooting 24.6 percent from the field against a difficult Baylor team, the Wildcats are looking to get their fifth conference season win and shake off their two-game losing streak.
“You have to leave that game knowing you didn’t give 100 percent,” senior captain Jalana Childs said. “It’s not the way we want to represent our team and our program, and you have to find your edge and be hungry for the next game.”
Childs said their practices since their loss at Baylor have been difficult, and coach Patterson is getting them mentally back into their game.
Junior captain Brittany Chambers is averaging 15.9 points per game and put 16 points on the board for the Wildcats against Baylor.
“For us to lose by that is unacceptable,” Chambers said about their 31-point loss to Baylor. “We need to come back and find who we are and play like we’ve always played. That’s giving everything we have every game, whether we’re down by 30 or up by 10.”
After Wednesday night’s game, the Wildcats will face a tough schedule composed of two on-the-road games against Oklahoma State and Texas, and will face Baylor again at home. K-State looks at tonight’s game as a must-win as they hope to take full advantage of playing on their home court.
“That’s life in the Big 12, that’s why holding court at home is very, very big,” coach Patterson said about their upcoming schedule. “We blew that with OU. Now we’ve got to get it back with Iowa State and just take them one at a time.”