Kansas State University Athletics
Monday, November 5
Manhattan, Kan.
7 p.m.
Kansas State University
0-0
65
vs
50
Pittsburg State
0-0
1
2
3
4
F
Pittsburg State
9
7
15
19
50
Kansas State
16
16
14
19
65
First Quarter Run Sends K-State to Exhibition Win
Nov 05, 2018 | Women's Basketball
MANHATTAN, Kansas – Kansas State used a 13-0 run to end the first quarter and capture a lead they would never relinquish on Monday night, as the Wildcats capped its exhibition schedule with a 65-50 win over Pittsburg State at Bramlage Coliseum.
The Wildcats were led by freshman guard Christianna Carr with a game-high 27 points. Carr was 10-of-20 from the field, including 6-of-12 from beyond the arc. She also added five rebounds to her final line.
Joining Carr in double figures was redshirt junior Jasauen Beard with 11 points, five rebounds and four steals.
Pittsburg State was led by Athena Alvarado with 13 points and six rebounds, while Kaylee DaMitz tallied 12 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
Kansas State trailed early in the first quarter, 9-3, but the Wildcats used a 13-0 run to end the opening quarter with a 16-9 lead. K-State's rally was keyed by Beard who tallied four points and four steals during the run.
The run opened with a second chance layup from Rachel Ranke. Beard followed with a steal and uncontested layup. Carr then tallied a reverse layup and a 3-pointer to send K-State into a 12-9 lead with 1:25 left in the quarter.
Beard recorded another steal and uncontested layup with 31 seconds left to force a Pittsburg State timeout. Cymone Goodrich capped the scoring run with a pair of free throws with 15 seconds left.
K-State's defense stifled the Gorillas in the second quarter, forcing Pittsburg State into a 1-of-14 (.071) shooting effort in the second stanza. K-State held Pittsburg State without a made field goal for the final 8:03 of the second quarter, including an 0-of-11 effort from the field during that stretch.
Offensively, the Wildcats were led in the quarter by Carr with 12 of K-State's 16 points in the frame to build a 32-16 lead at the half. Carr bolstered her scoring effort in the quarter with three 3-point field goals.
For the half, Carr scored 17 of K-State's 32 points. The K-State defense held Pittsburg State to a 15.4 percent shooting performance (4-of-26) from the floor.
Pittsburg State outscored Kansas State in the third quarter, 15-14. Carr started K-State's scoring with a three-pointer to increase K-State's lead to 35-16 with 8:14 remaining. The teams then exchanged baskets for the entirety of the third stanza. Ranke led the Wildcats in the frame with four points, as the Wildcats held a 46-31 lead.
The Gorillas cut the K-State lead to 10, 52-42, with 6:17 to play on an Alvarado jumper. The Wildcats then strung together an 11-4 run to establish a 17-point lead, 63-46, with 2:34 to play as Goodrich finished a layup.
Kansas State ended the night shooting 37.1 percent from the field (26-of-70), including a 7-of-22 (.318) effort from three-point range. The Wildcats also tallied a 38-16 advantage in points in the paint.
After a difficult first half, Pittsburg State finished at 31.0 percent (18-of-58) from the floor. The Wildcats held a 45-39 edge in rebounding.
Kansas State will begin the 51st season in program history on Monday, November 12, as the Wildcats host Omaha at 5:30 p.m. Monday's game is part of a women's and men's basketball doubleheader. Monday's game will be available on K-StateHD.TV. Fans can also listen to the game on the K-State Sports Network and for free at kstatesports.com.
What They Said
K-State Head Coach Jeff Mittie
On the performance of the team...
"I have a lot of concerns after this game, but I think that there are a lot of positives. I think that the positives are that the ball went into the basket a little bit better. I think we are taking way too many guarded shots, way too many out of rhythm shots, some of that is that we just kind of gotta grind our way out of this. Different group out there that hasn't played that many reps together, but they also have to make sure that their focus is on learning on how to play together better, and if they do that I think that we could see some big strides.
"My concern simply would be that 26 field goals and we only have nine assists. That's not a very good number, that shows a lot of individual plays and obviously that's why the shooting percentage is low, a lot of tough shots. Then defensively, I didn't like us as much as I thought the other night. The other night I thought we played hard and that we played assignment correct. We had centers in foul trouble tonight and we had missed assignments. I did not think that this was as good of a defensive game as it was the other night."
On the offensive performance with a lot of new faces on the floor...
"I think it's good, I think it shows their potential and shows their ability to make some individual plays. And that's probably their comfort zone right because they really don't know their teammates that well. You know, Beard tonight played a lot of the four which she had not played the other night because we needed to get Peyton (Williams) minutes and Peyton played the majority of the minutes to the four, so there were times that she was lost out there and she kind of grinded her way through it and played better as the game went on. I've said a couple times in here, time is maybe the only thing that can solve it but we don't have a lot of time before the first game here so we gotta expedite as much as we can as coaches and players."
On problems from shooting from the three-point…
"Well, I think that it is coming from that area and I think it's also coming in the paint some. I mean, we saw a lot of off balance shots in the paint that I didn't feel like our players were working hard enough. I thought Rachel (Ranke) threw off some off-balanced shots in the side that I thought we had worked on in the offseason. She reverted back to kind of that play as a freshman. I said on the radio show after the game that only eight free throws are a problem. That's an indication of some off balanced shots in the paint that we need to be better at, quite honestly. A good portion of them were coming from the three, I thought Rachel had some rushed shots. You gotta admire their confidence, they think every shot is going in. To have that young optimism is a wonderful thing, if we had gone to the free throw line a bunch tonight, you could say the nine assists number wouldn't bother me as much. If we would've gone to the free throw line 23 times tonight, now you could go 'ok, you overpowered them in the paint, you ISOed them to death, that was the attack tonight.' That wasn't the attack tonight. We were trying to move the ball as best we can, play with the open player, we really didn't call many plays other than plays to get them used to game action. We didn't really call a play for a specific player, so that nine assists number is way too low."
On playing without Peyton Williams and Kayla Goth…
"Peyton's decision was made back in June. That was kind of a scheduled thing we looked at and said, you know, we had the knowledge of last year and just wanted to make sure she goes in. So it wasn't anything like, hey she was tired or anything, that decision was made back in June. Now Goth, we are being certainly very careful with it. We don't want to take any steps back with it with the ankle. Could she have played tonight? Yeah. Would she have taken a step back if she had played significant minutes? Yeah, probably. It probably would've swelled up really good and we would've probably been going backwards. So far we are going forward with that and I think that we are going the right direction. Our hope is that she is 100 percent when she returns because we don't want that to nag her. We are optimistic for Monday, though."
On making a big run without any of the three leading returning scorers on the floor…
"I like the way Savvy (Simmons) ran the point tonight for us, no turnovers. The funny thing about coaching them right now is you realize how inexperienced we are. For example, I said coming out of the timeout, 54-45, which is some actions, Chrissy was like we're running that, come hell or high water. Savvy's right in front of me and I decide hey run this action. Savvy calls that action and Chrissy's like, 'Coach they had 54-yah, yah yah.' I had to explain, the point guard trumps you and obviously a veteran guard who's been through those things like Goth would recognize coach changed his mind coming out of this and we're going to run this action and the next two or three trips I need to look at those other things that he talked about.
"That's just something that, they want to please so much that they really do want to do what we're asking them to do. It's really beneficial to get these answers now because I have to make sure they understand this. Those are hard things to practice in practice. They are. They're hard things to practice in practice. You can only get that game energy and that game frustration quite honestly. We had some of that on the floor tonight and we worked through it and I think it's a real positive.
"You mentioned the run without Rachel (Ranke). It was nice to see because I actually left her over there because they were making a good run. I kind of wanted to see how they handled it, not having one of our leading scorers on the floor, we had our three top scorers off the floor when we played really well."
On trying to expedite the process of gaining continuity with the lineup…
"The best thing I can do is make sure we get plenty of offensive work. The players have to do that some on their own. In some cases you have to take some shooting out of practice and they have to get that on their own so that you can get more offensive rhythm, more team plays together. You just try to get those plays as much as you can in practice. Some of it will come from veterans. I think as we add back Peyton, that'll relax them a little bit as well. We're asking a lot out of them tonight. We're asking J. Beard to go from the four to the three to running plays at the four. We're asking Chrissy - Chrissy played a lot at the point the other night, I wanted to get her to the wing more tonight. We were able to do that and she responded very well. A lot of moving parts right now."
Redshirt Junior Forward Jasauen Beard
On the sparking a run…
"In the beginning my very first shot of the game was not a good shot. After that, I felt like I needed to build off of it to make up for it. On the defensive end I had to make up for it so it helped by running to the ball and getting that momentum to get those breaks."
Freshman Guard Christianna Carr
On her 27-point performance…
"It feels awesome. It is awesome to be able to shoot the ball at a high level tonight, I hope I continue to do that. My teammates did a great job of finding the hot player, which is an emphasis in practice. We are trying to build chemistry and that is one thing that helps build that chemistry. I feel like I have gotten a lot better at trying to find the open spaces. I know we took a lot of shots tonight but I know as the season comes those threes will come less of the dribble and a lot easier. We just have to keep working to find easier shots."
On adjusting to college game…
"It is definitely a faster pace. Finding shots is a lot harder. It is a faster pace both physically and mentally. Also whenever you are on the floor with more experienced players. It is definitely a faster pace than high school but Coach (Mittie) does a great job in practice. He lets me know in practice that some things will not be there in games and what will be there. He coaches me through it rather than saying that is wrong. It helps me mentally prepare myself for the games to come."
On shooting…
"Every player wants to come out and shoot the ball well every game. I have always been told to start off with a layup and to this day I never really have. Putting in extra work in the gym and getting up some extra shots especially with my teammates has really helped. Getting more shots up in Bramlage has definitely helped because it is a big difference compared to the practice facility."
The Wildcats were led by freshman guard Christianna Carr with a game-high 27 points. Carr was 10-of-20 from the field, including 6-of-12 from beyond the arc. She also added five rebounds to her final line.
Joining Carr in double figures was redshirt junior Jasauen Beard with 11 points, five rebounds and four steals.
Pittsburg State was led by Athena Alvarado with 13 points and six rebounds, while Kaylee DaMitz tallied 12 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
Kansas State trailed early in the first quarter, 9-3, but the Wildcats used a 13-0 run to end the opening quarter with a 16-9 lead. K-State's rally was keyed by Beard who tallied four points and four steals during the run.
The run opened with a second chance layup from Rachel Ranke. Beard followed with a steal and uncontested layup. Carr then tallied a reverse layup and a 3-pointer to send K-State into a 12-9 lead with 1:25 left in the quarter.
Beard recorded another steal and uncontested layup with 31 seconds left to force a Pittsburg State timeout. Cymone Goodrich capped the scoring run with a pair of free throws with 15 seconds left.
K-State's defense stifled the Gorillas in the second quarter, forcing Pittsburg State into a 1-of-14 (.071) shooting effort in the second stanza. K-State held Pittsburg State without a made field goal for the final 8:03 of the second quarter, including an 0-of-11 effort from the field during that stretch.
Offensively, the Wildcats were led in the quarter by Carr with 12 of K-State's 16 points in the frame to build a 32-16 lead at the half. Carr bolstered her scoring effort in the quarter with three 3-point field goals.
For the half, Carr scored 17 of K-State's 32 points. The K-State defense held Pittsburg State to a 15.4 percent shooting performance (4-of-26) from the floor.
Pittsburg State outscored Kansas State in the third quarter, 15-14. Carr started K-State's scoring with a three-pointer to increase K-State's lead to 35-16 with 8:14 remaining. The teams then exchanged baskets for the entirety of the third stanza. Ranke led the Wildcats in the frame with four points, as the Wildcats held a 46-31 lead.
The Gorillas cut the K-State lead to 10, 52-42, with 6:17 to play on an Alvarado jumper. The Wildcats then strung together an 11-4 run to establish a 17-point lead, 63-46, with 2:34 to play as Goodrich finished a layup.
Kansas State ended the night shooting 37.1 percent from the field (26-of-70), including a 7-of-22 (.318) effort from three-point range. The Wildcats also tallied a 38-16 advantage in points in the paint.
After a difficult first half, Pittsburg State finished at 31.0 percent (18-of-58) from the floor. The Wildcats held a 45-39 edge in rebounding.
Kansas State will begin the 51st season in program history on Monday, November 12, as the Wildcats host Omaha at 5:30 p.m. Monday's game is part of a women's and men's basketball doubleheader. Monday's game will be available on K-StateHD.TV. Fans can also listen to the game on the K-State Sports Network and for free at kstatesports.com.
What They Said
K-State Head Coach Jeff Mittie
On the performance of the team...
"I have a lot of concerns after this game, but I think that there are a lot of positives. I think that the positives are that the ball went into the basket a little bit better. I think we are taking way too many guarded shots, way too many out of rhythm shots, some of that is that we just kind of gotta grind our way out of this. Different group out there that hasn't played that many reps together, but they also have to make sure that their focus is on learning on how to play together better, and if they do that I think that we could see some big strides.
"My concern simply would be that 26 field goals and we only have nine assists. That's not a very good number, that shows a lot of individual plays and obviously that's why the shooting percentage is low, a lot of tough shots. Then defensively, I didn't like us as much as I thought the other night. The other night I thought we played hard and that we played assignment correct. We had centers in foul trouble tonight and we had missed assignments. I did not think that this was as good of a defensive game as it was the other night."
On the offensive performance with a lot of new faces on the floor...
"I think it's good, I think it shows their potential and shows their ability to make some individual plays. And that's probably their comfort zone right because they really don't know their teammates that well. You know, Beard tonight played a lot of the four which she had not played the other night because we needed to get Peyton (Williams) minutes and Peyton played the majority of the minutes to the four, so there were times that she was lost out there and she kind of grinded her way through it and played better as the game went on. I've said a couple times in here, time is maybe the only thing that can solve it but we don't have a lot of time before the first game here so we gotta expedite as much as we can as coaches and players."
On problems from shooting from the three-point…
"Well, I think that it is coming from that area and I think it's also coming in the paint some. I mean, we saw a lot of off balance shots in the paint that I didn't feel like our players were working hard enough. I thought Rachel (Ranke) threw off some off-balanced shots in the side that I thought we had worked on in the offseason. She reverted back to kind of that play as a freshman. I said on the radio show after the game that only eight free throws are a problem. That's an indication of some off balanced shots in the paint that we need to be better at, quite honestly. A good portion of them were coming from the three, I thought Rachel had some rushed shots. You gotta admire their confidence, they think every shot is going in. To have that young optimism is a wonderful thing, if we had gone to the free throw line a bunch tonight, you could say the nine assists number wouldn't bother me as much. If we would've gone to the free throw line 23 times tonight, now you could go 'ok, you overpowered them in the paint, you ISOed them to death, that was the attack tonight.' That wasn't the attack tonight. We were trying to move the ball as best we can, play with the open player, we really didn't call many plays other than plays to get them used to game action. We didn't really call a play for a specific player, so that nine assists number is way too low."
On playing without Peyton Williams and Kayla Goth…
"Peyton's decision was made back in June. That was kind of a scheduled thing we looked at and said, you know, we had the knowledge of last year and just wanted to make sure she goes in. So it wasn't anything like, hey she was tired or anything, that decision was made back in June. Now Goth, we are being certainly very careful with it. We don't want to take any steps back with it with the ankle. Could she have played tonight? Yeah. Would she have taken a step back if she had played significant minutes? Yeah, probably. It probably would've swelled up really good and we would've probably been going backwards. So far we are going forward with that and I think that we are going the right direction. Our hope is that she is 100 percent when she returns because we don't want that to nag her. We are optimistic for Monday, though."
On making a big run without any of the three leading returning scorers on the floor…
"I like the way Savvy (Simmons) ran the point tonight for us, no turnovers. The funny thing about coaching them right now is you realize how inexperienced we are. For example, I said coming out of the timeout, 54-45, which is some actions, Chrissy was like we're running that, come hell or high water. Savvy's right in front of me and I decide hey run this action. Savvy calls that action and Chrissy's like, 'Coach they had 54-yah, yah yah.' I had to explain, the point guard trumps you and obviously a veteran guard who's been through those things like Goth would recognize coach changed his mind coming out of this and we're going to run this action and the next two or three trips I need to look at those other things that he talked about.
"That's just something that, they want to please so much that they really do want to do what we're asking them to do. It's really beneficial to get these answers now because I have to make sure they understand this. Those are hard things to practice in practice. They are. They're hard things to practice in practice. You can only get that game energy and that game frustration quite honestly. We had some of that on the floor tonight and we worked through it and I think it's a real positive.
"You mentioned the run without Rachel (Ranke). It was nice to see because I actually left her over there because they were making a good run. I kind of wanted to see how they handled it, not having one of our leading scorers on the floor, we had our three top scorers off the floor when we played really well."
On trying to expedite the process of gaining continuity with the lineup…
"The best thing I can do is make sure we get plenty of offensive work. The players have to do that some on their own. In some cases you have to take some shooting out of practice and they have to get that on their own so that you can get more offensive rhythm, more team plays together. You just try to get those plays as much as you can in practice. Some of it will come from veterans. I think as we add back Peyton, that'll relax them a little bit as well. We're asking a lot out of them tonight. We're asking J. Beard to go from the four to the three to running plays at the four. We're asking Chrissy - Chrissy played a lot at the point the other night, I wanted to get her to the wing more tonight. We were able to do that and she responded very well. A lot of moving parts right now."
Redshirt Junior Forward Jasauen Beard
On the sparking a run…
"In the beginning my very first shot of the game was not a good shot. After that, I felt like I needed to build off of it to make up for it. On the defensive end I had to make up for it so it helped by running to the ball and getting that momentum to get those breaks."
Freshman Guard Christianna Carr
On her 27-point performance…
"It feels awesome. It is awesome to be able to shoot the ball at a high level tonight, I hope I continue to do that. My teammates did a great job of finding the hot player, which is an emphasis in practice. We are trying to build chemistry and that is one thing that helps build that chemistry. I feel like I have gotten a lot better at trying to find the open spaces. I know we took a lot of shots tonight but I know as the season comes those threes will come less of the dribble and a lot easier. We just have to keep working to find easier shots."
On adjusting to college game…
"It is definitely a faster pace. Finding shots is a lot harder. It is a faster pace both physically and mentally. Also whenever you are on the floor with more experienced players. It is definitely a faster pace than high school but Coach (Mittie) does a great job in practice. He lets me know in practice that some things will not be there in games and what will be there. He coaches me through it rather than saying that is wrong. It helps me mentally prepare myself for the games to come."
On shooting…
"Every player wants to come out and shoot the ball well every game. I have always been told to start off with a layup and to this day I never really have. Putting in extra work in the gym and getting up some extra shots especially with my teammates has really helped. Getting more shots up in Bramlage has definitely helped because it is a big difference compared to the practice facility."
Team Stats
PSU
K-STATE
FG%
.310
.371
3FG%
.261
.318
FT%
.800
.750
RB
39
45
TO
16
12
STL
6
11
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
27
FGM
10
3FGM
6
FTM
1
Pts
11
FGM
5
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Pts
9
FGM
4
3FGM
1
FTM
0
Pts
8
FGM
2
3FGM
0
FTM
4
Players Mentioned
F
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's Basketball
F
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