Kansas State University Athletics
Friday, November 16
Manhattan, Kan.
7 p.m.
Kansas State University
2-0
60
vs
42
North Texas
1-2
1
2
3
4
F
North Texas
10
11
16
5
42
Kansas State
22
13
11
14
60
Strong First Quarter Pushes K-State to Win on Friday
Nov 16, 2018 | Women's Basketball
MANHATTAN, Kansas – Kansas State bookended Friday night's win over North Texas at Bramlage Coliseum, as the Wildcats tallied solid offensive and defensive performances in the first and fourth quarters to down the Mean Green, 60-42.
K-State (2-0) featured three players in double figures led by 2019 Nancy Lieberman Award candidate Kayla Goth with a game-high 21 points, seven assists, four rebounds and three steals. This was Goth's 13th career game with 20 or more points. With her seven assists, Goth moved into 12th on the K-State career list with 325 assists, passing Betsy Sloan (1979-83; 322).
Joining Goth in double figures was senior forward Kali Jones with her first career double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds. Jones tallied career-highs in both points and rebounds. She also added two steals and a pair of assists.
Sophomore Rachel Ranke also added a diverse stat line with 13 points on 3-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc, eight rebounds, a block, a steal and an assist.
Kansas State continued its strong scoring output from the end of Monday's game against Omaha into the first quarter against North Texas (1-2). The Wildcats ended the opening quarter with a 22-10 lead.
K-State was paced in the opening quarter by Goth and Ranke with nine and seven points, respectively, on a combined 6-of-8 shooting. Goth capped the quarter with a jumper in the lane as time expired.
In the fourth quarter, K-State held the Mean Green to five total on a 1-of-12 (.083) effort from the field. North Texas went the final 8:39 of the game without a made field goal. This was the second straight game K-State held an opponent to five points in the fourth quarter.
Kansas State backed up their defense in the fourth quarter by pounding the ball into the paint. The Wildcats tallied 12 of their 14 total points in the final quarter from inside the lane. Jones led the way in the quarter with seven points and three rebounds.
For the night, K-State shot 22-of-48 (.458) from the floor on Friday night and held North Texas to a 16-of-55 (.291) effort. Overall, K-State held a 30-16 advantage in points in the paint and tallied a 10-0 led in fastbreak points.
Kansas State will end its three-game home stand on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m., against UMKC. Sunday's game is part of a "Wildcat Weekend," as fans can show their game ticket to the K-State football game against Texas Tech on Saturday and purchase a women's basketball general admission ticket for $3.
Sunday's game will be broadcast on ESPN3. The game will also be available on the K-State Sports Network and for free at kstatesports.com.
What They Said
Jeff Mittie, Head Coach
On the game...
"I thought it was a good executed game for us. We had a short bench tonight, so it was important that we were able to execute some things. It was important at times to play a little bit slower and take some clock so the possessions were fewer, and I think our team grew up in that area tonight. It wasn't perfect, but it was a better performance execution-wise at both ends."
On playing zone defense...
"I do think it is a pretty good defense against them because they don't really play with four shooters very often, the most they go with is three out there. Our short bench, I was concerned with their dribble attack and getting our guards in foul trouble and knowing that we had a short bench tonight, that concerned me, so that was one of the other reasons we went zone."
On Kali Jones…
"I didn't feel like she was playing great early, I wanted her to be more aggressive. In the second half I thought she played much more aggressive than she was playing early in the game. I think confidence had a lot to do with that. She hasn't played as well in practice, she's been a little down. So it was great to see her have a great performance tonight."
"You could see her confidence as the game wore on. The best move she had of the night was a seal power move. The two drop offs Goth gave her late in the game were an icing on the cake, but the best power move she had was a finish at around the four minute mark and she just went straight through them, and that was the one that looked the most confident. And then she goes down to the other end defensively, and she gets a swim move around the post and gets a steal, and you were starting to see her activity level. When her activity level is high, she is a really good player. When her activity level drops, she is a very average player. That's the bottom line. We need her activity level to be high, and hopefully that is a big boost for her confidence."
On the hot start on offense…
"We got the ball to (Kayla Goth) and we got the ball in spots where they had trouble defending her. I thought our players played great out of that. Rachel (Ranke) got some curls out of that early in the game. Our offensive rebounding was pretty good because they started giving a lot of attention to Goth, so I just think we got the ball in areas that gave them trouble and got it in areas where (Goth) had an advantage.
On shutting down Terriell Bradley...
"The best thing we did was keep her off the free throw line for the most part. She got five free throws, but this is a player who shot almost 200 free throws last year. She gets a lot from the free throw line, and we were able to stop this team in transition. We didn't give them anything easy. We didn't let her get to the rim. She never got into what I would consider any rhythm tonight. I thought we had a pretty good awareness for their whole group."
Kayla Goth, Senior Guard
On scoring first…
"It's always a confidence booster. When you miss the first one you've got to come back and make the second so making the first one makes the second one a little bit easier. So it's definitely a confidence thing. I was thankful for it."
On what pleased her most in the win…
"I'm happy to see (senior forward) Kali Jones' numbers. She has been struggling in practice and struggled in the first exhibition games but she played really well this summer and she was someone I was really looking forward to playing with. She came out tonight the way she was playing all summer so I'm really happy to see those numbers."
Rachel Ranke, Sophomore Guard
On a good night of shooting…
"I was just making shots for once. I got off to a pretty rough start in those exhibition games but seeing that first one in definitely helped me hit the other ones."
On calling for the ball less this year…
"Obviously people are a little bit more glued to me given the fact that I'm a shooter. I feel like I'm calling for it the same. I think I'm still doing that honestly but people are definitely tighter on me this year."
On what pleased her most in the win…
"I felt like we played a lot more together this game. We were finding open players, looking at the assist numbers, Kayla had seven so I think we were finding the open players and we were just having fun. I think we get lost in our own heads sometimes out there but I feel like tonight was a really fun one for us."
K-State (2-0) featured three players in double figures led by 2019 Nancy Lieberman Award candidate Kayla Goth with a game-high 21 points, seven assists, four rebounds and three steals. This was Goth's 13th career game with 20 or more points. With her seven assists, Goth moved into 12th on the K-State career list with 325 assists, passing Betsy Sloan (1979-83; 322).
Joining Goth in double figures was senior forward Kali Jones with her first career double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds. Jones tallied career-highs in both points and rebounds. She also added two steals and a pair of assists.
Sophomore Rachel Ranke also added a diverse stat line with 13 points on 3-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc, eight rebounds, a block, a steal and an assist.
Kansas State continued its strong scoring output from the end of Monday's game against Omaha into the first quarter against North Texas (1-2). The Wildcats ended the opening quarter with a 22-10 lead.
K-State was paced in the opening quarter by Goth and Ranke with nine and seven points, respectively, on a combined 6-of-8 shooting. Goth capped the quarter with a jumper in the lane as time expired.
In the fourth quarter, K-State held the Mean Green to five total on a 1-of-12 (.083) effort from the field. North Texas went the final 8:39 of the game without a made field goal. This was the second straight game K-State held an opponent to five points in the fourth quarter.
Kansas State backed up their defense in the fourth quarter by pounding the ball into the paint. The Wildcats tallied 12 of their 14 total points in the final quarter from inside the lane. Jones led the way in the quarter with seven points and three rebounds.
For the night, K-State shot 22-of-48 (.458) from the floor on Friday night and held North Texas to a 16-of-55 (.291) effort. Overall, K-State held a 30-16 advantage in points in the paint and tallied a 10-0 led in fastbreak points.
Kansas State will end its three-game home stand on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m., against UMKC. Sunday's game is part of a "Wildcat Weekend," as fans can show their game ticket to the K-State football game against Texas Tech on Saturday and purchase a women's basketball general admission ticket for $3.
Sunday's game will be broadcast on ESPN3. The game will also be available on the K-State Sports Network and for free at kstatesports.com.
What They Said
Jeff Mittie, Head Coach
On the game...
"I thought it was a good executed game for us. We had a short bench tonight, so it was important that we were able to execute some things. It was important at times to play a little bit slower and take some clock so the possessions were fewer, and I think our team grew up in that area tonight. It wasn't perfect, but it was a better performance execution-wise at both ends."
On playing zone defense...
"I do think it is a pretty good defense against them because they don't really play with four shooters very often, the most they go with is three out there. Our short bench, I was concerned with their dribble attack and getting our guards in foul trouble and knowing that we had a short bench tonight, that concerned me, so that was one of the other reasons we went zone."
On Kali Jones…
"I didn't feel like she was playing great early, I wanted her to be more aggressive. In the second half I thought she played much more aggressive than she was playing early in the game. I think confidence had a lot to do with that. She hasn't played as well in practice, she's been a little down. So it was great to see her have a great performance tonight."
"You could see her confidence as the game wore on. The best move she had of the night was a seal power move. The two drop offs Goth gave her late in the game were an icing on the cake, but the best power move she had was a finish at around the four minute mark and she just went straight through them, and that was the one that looked the most confident. And then she goes down to the other end defensively, and she gets a swim move around the post and gets a steal, and you were starting to see her activity level. When her activity level is high, she is a really good player. When her activity level drops, she is a very average player. That's the bottom line. We need her activity level to be high, and hopefully that is a big boost for her confidence."
On the hot start on offense…
"We got the ball to (Kayla Goth) and we got the ball in spots where they had trouble defending her. I thought our players played great out of that. Rachel (Ranke) got some curls out of that early in the game. Our offensive rebounding was pretty good because they started giving a lot of attention to Goth, so I just think we got the ball in areas that gave them trouble and got it in areas where (Goth) had an advantage.
On shutting down Terriell Bradley...
"The best thing we did was keep her off the free throw line for the most part. She got five free throws, but this is a player who shot almost 200 free throws last year. She gets a lot from the free throw line, and we were able to stop this team in transition. We didn't give them anything easy. We didn't let her get to the rim. She never got into what I would consider any rhythm tonight. I thought we had a pretty good awareness for their whole group."
Kayla Goth, Senior Guard
On scoring first…
"It's always a confidence booster. When you miss the first one you've got to come back and make the second so making the first one makes the second one a little bit easier. So it's definitely a confidence thing. I was thankful for it."
On what pleased her most in the win…
"I'm happy to see (senior forward) Kali Jones' numbers. She has been struggling in practice and struggled in the first exhibition games but she played really well this summer and she was someone I was really looking forward to playing with. She came out tonight the way she was playing all summer so I'm really happy to see those numbers."
Rachel Ranke, Sophomore Guard
On a good night of shooting…
"I was just making shots for once. I got off to a pretty rough start in those exhibition games but seeing that first one in definitely helped me hit the other ones."
On calling for the ball less this year…
"Obviously people are a little bit more glued to me given the fact that I'm a shooter. I feel like I'm calling for it the same. I think I'm still doing that honestly but people are definitely tighter on me this year."
On what pleased her most in the win…
"I felt like we played a lot more together this game. We were finding open players, looking at the assist numbers, Kayla had seven so I think we were finding the open players and we were just having fun. I think we get lost in our own heads sometimes out there but I feel like tonight was a really fun one for us."
Team Stats
UNT
K-STATE
FG%
.291
.458
3FG%
.278
.313
FT%
.500
.524
RB
34
34
TO
18
16
STL
4
9
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
21
FGM
9
3FGM
1
FTM
2
Pts
14
FGM
5
3FGM
0
FTM
4
Pts
13
FGM
4
3FGM
3
FTM
2
Pts
8
FGM
3
3FGM
1
FTM
1
Players Mentioned
G
/ Women's BasketballF
/ Women's BasketballG
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