The Kansas State women’s basketball team depended on a strong third quarter comeback to pull out a 61-46 victory over the University of Nebraska Omaha Mavericks Monday night in Bramlage Coliseum.
“It was a hard night for us offensively for most of the night,” head coach Jeff Mittie said. “We were not moving the ball very well.”
The Wildcats put on a poor performance early on, shooting 1-13 from behind the line in the first half and scoring only nine points in the second quarter. Early in the third quarter, K-State trailed Omaha 33-22.
“At that point when we were down 11, it’s really was about us stringing together good possessions,” Mittie said.
Then, the Wildcats found better defensive and offensive strategies. At the end of the third quarter, K-State stormed on a 14-1 scoring run. The score sat tied within the first 20 seconds of the fourth quarter.
The Wildcats spent the rest of the fourth quarter with a foot on the Mavericks’ throats, scoring 22 points while only allowing five.
K-State turned Omaha over 19 times in the second half and ended the night with 20 points off turnovers.
Senior guard Kayla Goth finished the game with four points, four turnovers and two steals. All four of her points came in the first quarter on free throws. It was her first action of the season.
“Our guards have got to do a better job,” Mittie said. “We do not have many assist numbers this year.”
Mittie did say that the second half was better than the first half and the exhibition games, but he’s right that his team is lacking in assists. Tonight, they only had 11.
“It’s probably beneficial that we didn’t shoot it good (sic) because it forced us to really move the basketball and play together,” Mittie said.
K-State wil ltake on the North Texas Mean Green on Friday at Bramlage. The Mean Green are 1-1 on the year after a 54-64 loss to Texas on Monday night.
