The Kansas State women’s basketball team upset the No. 11 Texas Longhorns 87-69 Wednesday in Manhattan.
The Wildcats improved to 11-6 on the season and 2-3 in the Big 12 in the win. K-State put up 87 points, the most this season in the victory.
The Wildcats were led to victory by senior guard Kayla Goth’s 20 points and 12 assists, the most assists in a game in the Big 12 this season.
Goth had plenty of help from freshman guard Christianna Carr, who had a 19-point game, and junior forward Peyton Williams’ 18-point, eight-rebound night helped the Wildcats get the upset victory.
The Wildcats never surrendered the lead throughout the entire game and got off to a strong start with a 13-5 run midway through the first quarter leading 18-10.
The Wildcats began the night hot behind the 3-point line, shooting 83 percent (5-6) in the first quarter. Junior forward Peyton Williams led the team with 11 points in the quarter and shot a perfect 3-for-3 behind the three-point line.
The Wildcats held a 23-13 lead over the Longhorns at the end of the first quarter.
K-State opened the second quarter with a 6-0 run to force Texas to call a timeout within the first two minutes in the quarter. The Wildcats built a commanding 32-15 lead in the second quarter during a three-minute scoring drought by Texas.
K-State continued to put pressure on Texas by playing zone defense and forcing the team to take contested shots. The Wildcats outscored the Longhorns 19-10 in the second quarter to take a 42-23 lead at halftime.
Williams led the Wildcats with 15 points and six rebounds in the half. Junior forward Sug Sutton led the Longhorns in scoring with seven points; sophomore guard Destiny Littleton led Texas with four rebounds.
The Wildcats shot 50 percent from the floor and shot 48 percent (6-13) from the 3-point line in the first half, compared to the Longhorns’ 35 percent from the field, 33 percent from the 3-point range.
The Longhorns struggled to hold to the ball turning it over ten times in the first half. K-State scored 14 points off those turnovers.
The Longhorns opened the third quarter with a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 12 at 42-30, forcing head coach Jeff Mittie to call a timeout within the first two minutes of the quarter.
Following the timeout, the Wildcats went on a 7-0 run of their own and regained a commanding 51-32 lead during a three-minute-long scoring drought for the Longhorns. The Wildcats led 60-43 at the end of the quarter creating a strong bid for an upset.
K-State continued to dominate in the fourth quarter. The Longhorns would keep pace but could not dig out of the hole that was established early in the game.
“I felt like we left it all out there,” Williams said. “We had players doing their job all over the place. It was a game that we played the whole game.”
The Wildcats shot 54 percent from the field and 58 percent from the 3-point line. The Longhorns struggled to hold onto the ball, turning the ball over a total 14 times — the Wildcats scored 20 points off those turnovers.
“Obviously we played outstanding tonight, we did a lot of really good things I think the best thing we did was we competed harder.” Mittie said. “When you do that, you give yourself an opportunity, and if you don’t do it, you really are never going to have an opportunity to win big games.”
The Wildcats will return to action on Saturday to face Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas, at 3 p.m. on Fox Sports Southwest.
