Kansas State Says Lesson Learned, Ready For Rematch With Texas Tech
Mar 13, 2003 | Women's Basketball
March 13, 2003
By YVONNE LEWIS
AP MegaSports Writer
Expect Kansas State to be more focused this time around.
After being denied the Big 12 regular season championship by No. 8 TexasTech, the seventh-ranked Wildcats get their shot at revenge in the semifinalsof the conference tournament on Thursday at Reunion Arena in Dallas.
Kansas State's season-ending 73-64 loss at Texas Tech prevented it fromwinning its first Big 12 regular season title. The defeat also snapped theWildcats' nine-game win streak.
But the Wildcats (28-3), who are looking for their first tournamentchampionship, say they'll be ready this time.
"We are really looking forward to that," forward Nicole Ohlde said. "Theyare very tough and they proved that when we were down in Lubbock. We just haveto come out and do the things that we are capable of."
Kansas State, the tournament's second seed behind Texas, came out lookingsharp in its quarterfinal game against seventh-seeded Baylor on Wednesday,holding the Lady Bears to 25 percent shooting (23-of-91) in a 77-60 win.
The Wildcats also set a team record for blocks in a Big 12 tournament gamewith 10 and shot nearly 50 percent (28-of-57) from the floor.
Laurie Koehn led Kansas State with 22 points and shot 6-of-12 from 3-pointrange as it won for the 23rd time in its last 25 games.
"We struggled at Tech on the offensive and defensive ends of the floor,"Kansas State coach Deb Patterson said. "We felt like we needed to improve onboth ends significantly."
The Wildcats haven't made it to the tournament title game since losing 55-54to Colorado in 1997. They defeated the Lady Raiders that same year in thequarterfinals 76-68, but lost to them 74-55 in the same round in 1998-99.
Kansas State, which is in the semifinals for the second straight season, hasnot won two games in the tournament since reaching the '97 title game.
Texas Tech (25-4) is trying to get back to the championship game for thefirst time since 1999, when it won the second of back-to-back titles.
The Lady Raiders struggled before beating 11th-seeded Oklahoma State 75-52on Wednesday.
Jia Perkins scored 20 points and Plenette Pierson added 16 and nine reboundsfor the third-seeded Lady Raiders, who won for the ninth time in their last 11.
Texas Tech has won seven of 10 all-time meetings with Kansas State,including six of the last seven.
Thursday's winner faces Texas or Colorado in Saturday's championship game.
