No. 17 Kansas State (21-6) 71, Nebraska (17-12) 45
Kansas State opened tonight’s game with the starting lineup of seniors Megan Mahoney and Kendra Wecker and freshman Shana Wheeler at the forward spots and senior Laurie Koehn and sophomore Claire Coggins at the guard spots... Mahoney continued her K-State career record with her 127th start... Wecker made her 124th and Koehn her 112th... Coggins made her 27th career start, while Wheeler made her 18th career start... It is the 18th time this season that the group has started together this season... With this evening’s win, the unit improved to 15-3 on the season.
Kansas State improved to 22-6 overall with tonight’s win... The victory was K-State’s fifth in a row... Kansas State has not lost since being edged by Texas 64-60 in Manhattan on Feb. 16... Ironically, the Wildcats’ Big 12 semifinal opponent Friday night will be the Longhorns... K-State’s win was also its fourth straight in the Big 12 quarterfinals... The last time the Cats failed to reach the Big 12 semis was at the 2001 league tournament... K-State improved to 9-8 all-time in the Big 12 Tournament and upped its record to 7-6 in Big 12 Tourney games played in Kansas City.
Tonight’s game marked the first meeting between Kansas State and Nebraska in the Big 12 Tournament, but the fourth time the Wildcats have faced a No. 6 seed... K-State is now 2-2 against No. 6 seeds in the Big 12 Tournament.
Tonight’s win was Kansas State’s fourth in a row over Nebraska and the Wildcats’ sixth in the last seven meetings with the Huskers... K-State is now 39-26 all time vs. Nebraska... Kansas State’s three wins over the Huskers this season averaged 22 points and marked the first time K-State had defeated Nebraska three times in the same season since doing so during the 1989-90 campaign.
With its 41 points in tonight’s first half, the Wildcats have now scored 98 points in the last two halves (K-State totaled 57 points in the second half of last week’s season finale at Missouri)... With their 41 points in tonight’s first half, the Wildcats have now had 40 or more points at intermission six times this season... Combined with the 43 points K-State scored at Nebraska on Feb. 23, it is the second straight game the Wildcats have topped 40 in the first half vs. Nebraska this year... Kansas State shot 60 percent (18-30) from the floor in the first half, marking the Wildcats best first-half shooting percentage since they shot 62.5 percent in the first 20 minutes in the second game of the season vs. Pepperdine on Nov. 21, 2004... Nebraska’s 17 first-half points were a season-low for the Huskers... Nebraska’s previous season-low was 18 at Kansas State on Jan. 15... It is the fewest points by a K-State opponent at the break since Missouri was limited to just 15 on Jan. 11, 2005.
Kansas State out-rebounded Nebraska 43-32 ... The Wildcats have now out-rebounded five straight opponents and grabbed over 40 rebounds in 4 of their last five games.
With her game-high 19 points tonight, Kendra Wecker became the Big 12’s all-time leading scorer... Already the league’s career rebound leader, Wecker surpassed former teammate Nicole Ohlde (2,241 points) at the 14:14 mark of the second half on a put-back jumper from the left wing... The senior finished the game with 2,248 career points and has now scored in double figures in 22 straight and 24-of-25 this season... The only Big 12 player ever to score over 2,000 points and grab over 1,000 rebounds, Wecker also hauled down six rebounds and now has 1,044 for her career... It snapped a string of five straight double-doubles for the senior.
Brie Madden’s 10 rebounds were a season high for the senior.
Twiggy McIntyre’s 10 points tonight marked the second straight game that the sophomore has scored in double figures, but just the fifth time this season she has done so... She was the only Wildcat beside Wecker to hit twin figures in points.
Laurie Koehn finished with just eight points but had two 3-pointers now ranks second on the NCAA’s all-time list with 380 and trails only Erin Thorn (BYU, 1999-2003) with 391... She passed Kim MacMillan (LIU/St. John’s) with 379 in tonight’s game.
