The Kansas State Wildcats women’s basketball team moved to 12-2 in Bramlage Coliseum this season, avenging their earlier loss this season against the Iowa State Cyclones with an 80-68 win Saturday.
Senior guard Kindred Wesemann led the Wildcats’ starters in scoring with 17 points, while senior center Breanna Lewis led the team with eight rebounds. Saturday’s game, however, was not just about how the starters played.
“You know, it’s a nice problem to have when you can sit some of your starters and feel like you get a lift out of the bench, and that’s exactly what we got,” K-State head coach Jeff Mittie said. “We got a lot of energy, we got some offense, (we) got some rebounding, (we) just got a little bit of everything.”
Mittie wasn’t exaggerating about the offense either. Players who entered the game off the bench combined for a total of 40 points, exactly matching the combined total of the starters.
Mittie said he was proud of the team because even those who did not score many points still helped the team win.
“If you struggled in the game, you found a way to come back into the game and help your team,” Mittie said. “If you played well early, you found a way to come back in. When they adjusted and guarded tougher, they guarded Lanie tougher in the second half, she found a way to get down the lane line and get a bucket there.”
Page was just one of many players Mittie mentioned. He talked about Lewis, who only scored seven points, but whose rebounding was vital in the win. He also said Lanie’s sister, junior guard Kaylee Page, made a positive impact on the game, even if it wasn’t evident on the scoreboard.
“This is one of those games where, quite honestly, I can go down the line and everybody did positive, positive things,” Mittie said.
Mittie also mentioned sophomore guard Kayla Goth, who “quietly” ended the game with nine points and four assists.
The Wildcats started the game slow offensively, and Iowa State made them pay for it.
Cyclones’ junior guard Emily Durr had a breakout game, leading all scorers with 20 points. Like Goth, Durr had four assists. Also like Goth, she made her presence felt early.
The Cyclones went up 5-0 after Durr hit her first 3-pointer, then went up 8-2 after she hit her second. Her pair of 3s were only interrupted by K-State’s first points, which came on a layup.
Goth wasn’t done. With time winding down in the first quarter, Goth got the ball in the corner and hit K-State’s first made 3-pointer of the game. The shot sent the Wildcats into the second quarter with their first lead of the game, and the score 17-16.
That lead was short-lived. The Cyclones rarely gave up the lead in the second quarter after they reclaimed it about three minutes in. Of the 20 minutes in the first half, the Cyclones led for 15:18 of it, while the Wildcats led for only 2:24.
Like Goth after her earlier layup, Lanie Page wasn’t done scoring after her first 3-pointer midway through the second quarter.
Trailing 37-34, Page hit her second 3-pointer of the game. She hit her third just 26 seconds later, turning a 37-34 deficit into a 40-37 Wildcat lead at halftime.
After that, K-State never trailed. After trailing so much of the first half, and perhaps despite having done so, the Wildcats never finished a quarter of Saturday’s game with anything less than a lead.
The Wildcats next head to Morgantown, West Virginia, to take on the West Virginia Mountaineers Wednesday at 6 p.m.
