After a furious comeback win over West Virginia on the road Tuesday night, the women’s basketball team sets its sights on a road trip to visit the Oklahoma Sooners.
Sunday’s test pits the 12-12 Sooners against the 11-11 Wildcats for the second time this season. Last time around, a dominant third quarter lead Kansas State to a blow-out home win, 92-74.
The two teams are part of a logjam at the middle of the conference with five teams — half the conference — sitting somewhere between 5-6 and 4-7 in conference play.
The Sooners are in the middle of the pack at 5-7, but ride a two-game losing streak that includes a road loss to Iowa State and a home loss to in-state rival Oklahoma State. They’ve lost three of five since the loss in Manhattan.
In the last match-up, K-State’s two forwards turned in downright dominant performances.
Redshirt freshman Ayoka Lee joined a group of Wildcats tied at the top of the single-game rebound list with 20, she added 23 points. She also blocked five shots.
Senior forward Peyton Williams contributed another 24 points and 11 rebounds. She managed three assists from the forward spot as well.
The Wildcat frontcourt was able to do that mostly because of a massive size advantage. Lee, at 6-foot-5, and Williams, at 6-foot-4, have a couple inches over any Sooner averaging more than 20 minutes per game.
The two players have remarkably similar season averages in points and rebounds. Lee (15.59) and Willams (15.33) are nine and ten in the conference, respectively, in points per game. They are also two and three in the conference in rebounds per game, Williams has 11.48 and Lee has an even 11.
What the Sooners do extremely well, though, is shoot the three ball. The only team with a better percentage is Baylor, who dominates most statistical categories.
In the last game against K-State, Oklahoma was just 7-25 from three and sophomore guard Taylor Roberson was only 2-10. The McPherson native averages a league-leading 4.67 made three-point per game and leads her team in percentage, making 42.9 percent.
The Wildcats likely cannot count on such a poor shooting night to happen in Norman, Oklahoma, Sunday night and will have to focus on closing out well on shooters and running them off the line.
K-State’s offense will probably stick to what is does best and feed the ball to Lee and Williams as much as possible. Expect another big rebounding night from those two against the undersized Sooners.
The battle will take place at 2 p.m. Sunday on Fox Sports One and the K-State Radio Network.
