The Kansas State women’s basketball team will now look ahead to the NCAA Tournament after falling to No. 2 Baylor 88-71 Sunday afternoon in Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
“We had numerous trips of 0-2, 0-2, 0-2 and the obvious thing is that you can’t do that against a team that’s in the top five in the country,” head coach Jeff Mittie said to media after the game. “You’re not going to win games if you’re losing those kinds of plays, but our kids did do some good things to get there. Baylor is just playing at a high level.”
The Wildcats advanced to the semifinal game after defeating Iowa State 74-67 Saturday in their quarterfinal matchup. K-State took down the Cyclones thanks to a career-high 25 points off-the-bench from sophomore guard Kayla Goth.
Goth and the Wildcats got off to a slow start, trailing 15-7 after the first quarter, but K-State turned it around in the second quarter to pull ahead 25-24 at the half. K-State then slowly pulled away and held on to advance to the semifinals to take on the Bears.
While the Wildcats put up a fight and played well offensively against the top-seeded Bears, their halftime deficit proved too large to overcome. K-State only got outscored in the second half by three points, but the 14-point deficit going into the break kept the Wildcats out of reach.
The Wildcats will now turn their attention to the NCAA Tournament that starts March 17.
“Well, you know, with the way the tournament is set up across the country for you for most of the Power Five’s, we’re done here, so we’ve got a week before Selection Show,” Mittie said. “We need to get back and get better the next practice, I would like to see us continue.”
