The Kansas State Wildcats won their third-straight game to start the 2016-2017 season, beating the Lamar Cardinals 68-43 Sunday afternoon.
Senior center Breanna Lewis led all scorers, earning a double-double with 18 points and 14 rebounds.
Offense
Sunday’s game was a tale of two-halves for the Wildcats’ offense. After outscoring the Cardinals 43-21 in the first half, the Wildcats only outscored them 25-22 in the second.
K-State shot 57 percent from the floor in the first half before only shooting 32 percent in the second.
The Wildcats used a 13-0 run to make a 3-2 lead 16-2 in the first quarter. They never looked back, leading the rest of the game.
It wasn’t all good for K-State, however. For the first time all season, the Wildcats lost the turnover battle, committing 22 to Lamar’s 18. Still, K-State made more of the turnovers Lamar committed, scoring 20 points off Lamar’s turnovers while Lamar scored 10 off K-State’s.
The bench was also a major asset for K-State. The Wildcats bench outscored the Cardinals’ 32-3, partly because sophomore guard Kayla Goth came off the bench for the Wildcats Sunday, tallying 11 points.
Goth, Lewis and senior guard Kindred Wesemann who had 12 points were the only three Wildcats to end in double-figures.
Defense
The Wildcats allowed Cardinals’ senior forward Kiandra Bowers to register a double-double of her own with 11 points and 16 rebounds meaning she out-rebounded Lewis. Redshirt sophomore guard Moe Kinard also scored in double-digits for the Cardinals, registering 13 points.
Rebounds were an issue for the Wildcats, who out-rebounded Lamar 48-40. While the Wildcats defense out-rebounded the Cardinals’ offense, the same was true in reverse as the Wildcats offense ended up with fewer rebounds than the Cardinals’ defense.
The Wildcats also only stole the ball four times compared to the Cardinals’ 13 steals.
Quote of the night
“I thought our awareness was pretty good out there,” K-State head coach Jeff Mittie said. “That’s the area that I felt like, from a scouting report, we really played well today, better than we had in the previous games.”
Up next
The Wildcats play in the Paradise Jam, three games taking place in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The first game will be against North Carolina State at noon Thursday.
