Kansas State University Athletics
Monday, January 25
Manhattan, Kan.
4 p.m.
Kansas State University
5-7,0-5Big 12
55
vs
69
Oklahoma State
10-5,6-3Big 12
1
2
3
4
F
Oklahoma St.
11
18
15
25
69
Kansas St.
14
14
16
11
55
K-State Outpaced in Final Five Minutes by Oklahoma State
Jan 25, 2021 | Women's Basketball
MANHATTAN, Kansas – With the game tied entering the fourth quarter, K-State and Oklahoma State exchanged the lead in the first five minutes of the final frame before the Cowgirls ended the game on a 15-0 run to secure a 69-55 win at Bramlage Coliseum on Monday evening.
K-State (5-7, 0-5 Big 12) looked to take momentum into the fourth quarter, as Rachel Ranke banked in a three-pointer at the buzzer to square the game at 44. In the fourth quarter, the teams were tied three times and exchanged the lead five times in the first five minutes, which included a 3-pointer from Sydney Goodson with 4:56 to play in the fourth quarter to give the Wildcats a 55-54 edge.
Oklahoma State (10-5, 6-3 Big 12) would begin its decisive run with a Ja'Mee Asberry three-pointer to secure a 57-55 lead with 4:40 remaining. The Cowgirls would then hold K-State scoreless for the final five minutes of the game to capture the win.
"We did not hold the ball like we had the last couple of days, so we're hoping that we're getting our legs under us a little bit," said K-State head coach Jeff Mittie.
"Third game in x amount of days, there's always going to be some. I thought when we stayed disciplined, particularly in that third and early fourth, we were really getting some good stuff. We struggled to stay in a disciplined area, whether it be shot selection or cutting. Once again, I don't know the reason. I just know that was the result. I just know that was the situation. I think there are some good things we're doing, but it's a 40-minute game. You can't play 34 or 35. We just gave them too many opportunities."
The Wildcats were led by junior guard Christianna Carr with 14 points, her 10th game in double figures this season. Ranke came off the bench to tally 11 points which included a 3-of-5 effort from beyond the arc, four assists and three steals.
Oklahoma State was led by Asberry with 21 points, while Natasha Mack added 14 points, 19 rebounds and six blocks.
K-State ended the opening quarter with a 14-11 lead. Ranke broke a 9-9 tie with a three-pointer and Carr finished an acrobatic layup with five seconds on the clock to give the Wildcats the advantage. Ayoka Lee carded six points and six rebounds in the opening stanza. Lee would deal with foul trouble the entire game and finished with eight points and six rebounds.
The Cowgirls used an 11-3 run to take control of the second quarter and hold a 27-20 lead with 3:39 remaining. K-State's three points all came from the foul line, as the Wildcats were held without a field goal for four minutes during the Cowgirl run.
K-State ended the second quarter on an 8-2 run to close within a point, 29-28, at the half. Carr made another off-balanced layup to start the run. After she gathered a steal, Cymone Goodrich then followed a missed layup with a putback layup. Ranke then buried a 3-pointer with 31 seconds to bring the deficit to within one at the break.
The Wildcats continued their run into the third quarter, as the Wildcats used an 11-3 run in the opening six minutes to build a 39-32 lead with 3:59 to play. Sydney Goodson pocketed a steal and dished to a cutting Carr for a layup with 4:53 remaining and force an Oklahoma State timeout. Goodson ended the night with nine points, five rebounds, four assists, two steals and a blocked shot.
Following the timeout, Laura Macke saved a defensive rebound which found the hands of Ranke. Ranke then dished to Carr who buried her second 3-pointer of the day and give K-State the seven-point lead.
The Cowgirls responded with a 12-2 run to capture a 44-41 lead with 10 seconds remaining. After a Taylen Collins layup, K-State raced up the floor and Ranke banked in her third 3-pointer of the evening to knot the game at 44 at the end of the third.
Kansas State shot 35.3 percent (18-of-51) from the field including 40.0 percent (6-of-15) from 3-point range. Oklahoma State shot 35.5 percent (27-of-76) from the field, which was boosted by a 58.8 percent (10-of-17) fourth quarter performance.
K-State continues its three-game home stand this week on Thursday evening, as the Wildcats host Iowa State at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available on Tuesday by calling (800) 221-CATS or by visiting kstatesports.com/tickets.
Thursday's game will air on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ and on the K-State Sports Network and for free at kstatesports.com.
WHAT THEY SAID
JEFF MITTIE, HEAD COACH
Opening Statement…
"All three games have been the same coming back. Led for a decent portion and amount of the game, had leads and a tight game and then the last three, four, five minutes have not been good."
On if it's repeated mistakes or just trying to get back into shape...
"I don't know the answer to that. We haven't been disciplined enough down the stretch to stay with what's going good or make adjustments on the court. Asberry gets loose, but I don't see us having the recognition that we need to get to her quicker. Is that fatigue? Is it lack of awareness? At some point, you just gotta get the job done, and credit Asberry for knocking them down. But we were not very quick to her, and that was not supposed to be the case. We were supposed to be quick to her, and we weren't."
On allowing offensive rebounds...
"Too many chances. Too many second chances. We did survive a lot of them. We survived a good portion of this game without Lee. Obviously, Mack is a really hard matchup, so you give some extra help down there. She's so quick off the floor. While she doesn't have what you would call a great day because she missed some shots, she gets them nine extra possessions with offensive rebounds. Mack will be a first round pick. I think she's got all the tools to do that. She made some big plays defensively. She blocks two jump shots. She harassed another one and blocks a couple at the rim. Pretty good plays by her today."
On more aggression today offensively...
"We did not hold the ball like we had the last couple of days, so we're hoping that we're getting our legs under us a little bit. Third game in x amount of days, there's always going to be some. I thought when we stayed disciplined, particularly in that third and early fourth, we were really getting some good stuff. We struggled to stay in a disciplined area, whether it be shot selection or cutting. Once again, I don't know the reason. I just know that was the result. I just know that was the situation. I think there are some good things we're doing, but it's a 40-minute game. You can't play 34 or 35. We just gave them too many opportunities."
On playing zone without Lee in the game...
"With Mack, we can't guard her one on one. It's not an easy guard down there one on one. We were able to get some turnovers in the third. She threw it away once. Sydney (Goodson) got it once. The problem was they made a good adjustment getting the ball to Asberry and we just needed to be quicker out of that and we just weren't."
On the balance today...
"I thought they were more aggressive today. I thought they had a better look offensively, so yes, I think that was a good step in the right direction. I thought Ebert had spots in there, as well. We've gotta find a third scorer. We've gotta find a fourth scorer. We just have not had that in the previous two games. This was a better balanced scoring game, so hopefully we can carry that forward to Thursday's game."
On the turnovers...
"We're trying to get them to value the ball the best they can. Try not to do too much. Sometimes you have turnovers where you're trying to do too much, and the other part of that I think is you can have turnovers by playing passive. You've gotta play strong. You've gotta play aggressive. I think all those things go together. It was a little bit better today, but still too many."
CHRISSY CARR, JUNIOR GUARD
On the play late in games…
"I think that our biggest problem is not having enough toughness to be able to sit down and say we're going to get a stop here. I feel like it's the right talk in the huddle but our mindset has to be there as well, our mindset has to match our words. And then on offense down the stretch, I feel like, including myself, everyone is taking kind of rushed shots. We're all kind of sitting here like, holy crap, we look at the score and we're like now we need to make a 10-point play instead of just chipping away, doing our job on the defensive end, coming back and getting a good solid shot. But I feel like we get in panic mode when we get in those situations. You never want to be in panic mode against any Big 12 team because they are going to pick you apart like a little kid. That's what I feel like we were doing down the stretch, including myself, I got in panic mode. I was like we've got to make something happen. Yoki (Ayoka Lee) wasn't in that much and so I just needed to trust to disperse the weight throughout my teammates instead of just putting it all on my shoulders because I think everyone that steps on the floor is capable of taking and making a shot. We've just got to find the right player at the right time."
On the team's level of conditioning …
"It's kind of hard to speak on conditioning because when a team takes a month off in the middle of the season, it's kind of hard to sit here and be like everyone needs to be at the same place. Everyone reacted to COVID differently so it's kind of hard to sit here and say, yeah we're all just playing out of shape. My experience is a little bit different, my last day of protocol was on a gameday so I was able to just jump in and play. I think we came back at a good time, we came back and everyone was feeling good. But eventually, whenever you play games back-to-back-to-back-to-back the physicality catches up to you. I felt that tonight a lot. I was tired tonight and I started to feel it there in the fourth quarter. So I definitely think it catches up to you but we've just got to do the little things like recovery, ice, and all that stuff."
On what they need to do to limit turnovers…
"I would say composure and everyone has got to get on the same page. We have some people that are on one page and another person on one page. I think Coach Mittie stresses to us, playing together. I think that's one thing that will help us reduce turnovers. If you make a turnover trying to do the right thing nobody is going to care. You've just gotta lift your head up and keep going. It's the turnovers where we get a little bit too frazzled and we get a little bit sped up and everyone is trying to make right play, like I've got to do it now, I've got to do it now instead of just seeing the easy play. I do the same thing. I missed a couple people in the corner trying to make the right play rather than just making the easy play and sometimes you just have to do that early in the shot clock. So I think everybody including myself, we've just got to slow it down. Take time, see the floor, because if something is not open something is open."
SYDNEY GOODSON, SENIOR GUARD
On the defensive adjustments with Ayoka Lee out …
"Yeah definitely having Yoki (Ayoka Lee) on the court is a big benefit to our team. We don't particularly like playing without Yoki but I think defensively is we've just got to pack it in a little bit more. Especially when you have people like Natasha Mack in there, the double team is going to come more often. But Yoki is a crucial part of our team and so whenever she's not in everybody else has to step up. We tried to do that tonight and obviously there's a lot of room for us to grow in that area. But yeah, box outs are huge as you can tell, rebounding hurt us a lot tonight. So being able to rebound when she is out of the game is going to be a big step for us."
On many of the starters playing a lot of minutes…
"I honestly think it's fun, I want to play as many minutes as I can and I think that my teammates feel the same way. I think it's just big to take care of your body on off-days, get in with recovery with our strength coach and stuff. But this is why we're here, to play basketball and I love it. I can't speak for anybody else but I want to play that many minutes and I want to be out on the court and I want to be fighting to win these games and come out on top one of these days."
K-State (5-7, 0-5 Big 12) looked to take momentum into the fourth quarter, as Rachel Ranke banked in a three-pointer at the buzzer to square the game at 44. In the fourth quarter, the teams were tied three times and exchanged the lead five times in the first five minutes, which included a 3-pointer from Sydney Goodson with 4:56 to play in the fourth quarter to give the Wildcats a 55-54 edge.
Oklahoma State (10-5, 6-3 Big 12) would begin its decisive run with a Ja'Mee Asberry three-pointer to secure a 57-55 lead with 4:40 remaining. The Cowgirls would then hold K-State scoreless for the final five minutes of the game to capture the win.
"We did not hold the ball like we had the last couple of days, so we're hoping that we're getting our legs under us a little bit," said K-State head coach Jeff Mittie.
"Third game in x amount of days, there's always going to be some. I thought when we stayed disciplined, particularly in that third and early fourth, we were really getting some good stuff. We struggled to stay in a disciplined area, whether it be shot selection or cutting. Once again, I don't know the reason. I just know that was the result. I just know that was the situation. I think there are some good things we're doing, but it's a 40-minute game. You can't play 34 or 35. We just gave them too many opportunities."
The Wildcats were led by junior guard Christianna Carr with 14 points, her 10th game in double figures this season. Ranke came off the bench to tally 11 points which included a 3-of-5 effort from beyond the arc, four assists and three steals.
Oklahoma State was led by Asberry with 21 points, while Natasha Mack added 14 points, 19 rebounds and six blocks.
K-State ended the opening quarter with a 14-11 lead. Ranke broke a 9-9 tie with a three-pointer and Carr finished an acrobatic layup with five seconds on the clock to give the Wildcats the advantage. Ayoka Lee carded six points and six rebounds in the opening stanza. Lee would deal with foul trouble the entire game and finished with eight points and six rebounds.
The Cowgirls used an 11-3 run to take control of the second quarter and hold a 27-20 lead with 3:39 remaining. K-State's three points all came from the foul line, as the Wildcats were held without a field goal for four minutes during the Cowgirl run.
K-State ended the second quarter on an 8-2 run to close within a point, 29-28, at the half. Carr made another off-balanced layup to start the run. After she gathered a steal, Cymone Goodrich then followed a missed layup with a putback layup. Ranke then buried a 3-pointer with 31 seconds to bring the deficit to within one at the break.
The Wildcats continued their run into the third quarter, as the Wildcats used an 11-3 run in the opening six minutes to build a 39-32 lead with 3:59 to play. Sydney Goodson pocketed a steal and dished to a cutting Carr for a layup with 4:53 remaining and force an Oklahoma State timeout. Goodson ended the night with nine points, five rebounds, four assists, two steals and a blocked shot.
Following the timeout, Laura Macke saved a defensive rebound which found the hands of Ranke. Ranke then dished to Carr who buried her second 3-pointer of the day and give K-State the seven-point lead.
The Cowgirls responded with a 12-2 run to capture a 44-41 lead with 10 seconds remaining. After a Taylen Collins layup, K-State raced up the floor and Ranke banked in her third 3-pointer of the evening to knot the game at 44 at the end of the third.
Kansas State shot 35.3 percent (18-of-51) from the field including 40.0 percent (6-of-15) from 3-point range. Oklahoma State shot 35.5 percent (27-of-76) from the field, which was boosted by a 58.8 percent (10-of-17) fourth quarter performance.
K-State continues its three-game home stand this week on Thursday evening, as the Wildcats host Iowa State at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available on Tuesday by calling (800) 221-CATS or by visiting kstatesports.com/tickets.
Thursday's game will air on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ and on the K-State Sports Network and for free at kstatesports.com.
WHAT THEY SAID
JEFF MITTIE, HEAD COACH
Opening Statement…
"All three games have been the same coming back. Led for a decent portion and amount of the game, had leads and a tight game and then the last three, four, five minutes have not been good."
On if it's repeated mistakes or just trying to get back into shape...
"I don't know the answer to that. We haven't been disciplined enough down the stretch to stay with what's going good or make adjustments on the court. Asberry gets loose, but I don't see us having the recognition that we need to get to her quicker. Is that fatigue? Is it lack of awareness? At some point, you just gotta get the job done, and credit Asberry for knocking them down. But we were not very quick to her, and that was not supposed to be the case. We were supposed to be quick to her, and we weren't."
On allowing offensive rebounds...
"Too many chances. Too many second chances. We did survive a lot of them. We survived a good portion of this game without Lee. Obviously, Mack is a really hard matchup, so you give some extra help down there. She's so quick off the floor. While she doesn't have what you would call a great day because she missed some shots, she gets them nine extra possessions with offensive rebounds. Mack will be a first round pick. I think she's got all the tools to do that. She made some big plays defensively. She blocks two jump shots. She harassed another one and blocks a couple at the rim. Pretty good plays by her today."
On more aggression today offensively...
"We did not hold the ball like we had the last couple of days, so we're hoping that we're getting our legs under us a little bit. Third game in x amount of days, there's always going to be some. I thought when we stayed disciplined, particularly in that third and early fourth, we were really getting some good stuff. We struggled to stay in a disciplined area, whether it be shot selection or cutting. Once again, I don't know the reason. I just know that was the result. I just know that was the situation. I think there are some good things we're doing, but it's a 40-minute game. You can't play 34 or 35. We just gave them too many opportunities."
On playing zone without Lee in the game...
"With Mack, we can't guard her one on one. It's not an easy guard down there one on one. We were able to get some turnovers in the third. She threw it away once. Sydney (Goodson) got it once. The problem was they made a good adjustment getting the ball to Asberry and we just needed to be quicker out of that and we just weren't."
On the balance today...
"I thought they were more aggressive today. I thought they had a better look offensively, so yes, I think that was a good step in the right direction. I thought Ebert had spots in there, as well. We've gotta find a third scorer. We've gotta find a fourth scorer. We just have not had that in the previous two games. This was a better balanced scoring game, so hopefully we can carry that forward to Thursday's game."
On the turnovers...
"We're trying to get them to value the ball the best they can. Try not to do too much. Sometimes you have turnovers where you're trying to do too much, and the other part of that I think is you can have turnovers by playing passive. You've gotta play strong. You've gotta play aggressive. I think all those things go together. It was a little bit better today, but still too many."
CHRISSY CARR, JUNIOR GUARD
On the play late in games…
"I think that our biggest problem is not having enough toughness to be able to sit down and say we're going to get a stop here. I feel like it's the right talk in the huddle but our mindset has to be there as well, our mindset has to match our words. And then on offense down the stretch, I feel like, including myself, everyone is taking kind of rushed shots. We're all kind of sitting here like, holy crap, we look at the score and we're like now we need to make a 10-point play instead of just chipping away, doing our job on the defensive end, coming back and getting a good solid shot. But I feel like we get in panic mode when we get in those situations. You never want to be in panic mode against any Big 12 team because they are going to pick you apart like a little kid. That's what I feel like we were doing down the stretch, including myself, I got in panic mode. I was like we've got to make something happen. Yoki (Ayoka Lee) wasn't in that much and so I just needed to trust to disperse the weight throughout my teammates instead of just putting it all on my shoulders because I think everyone that steps on the floor is capable of taking and making a shot. We've just got to find the right player at the right time."
On the team's level of conditioning …
"It's kind of hard to speak on conditioning because when a team takes a month off in the middle of the season, it's kind of hard to sit here and be like everyone needs to be at the same place. Everyone reacted to COVID differently so it's kind of hard to sit here and say, yeah we're all just playing out of shape. My experience is a little bit different, my last day of protocol was on a gameday so I was able to just jump in and play. I think we came back at a good time, we came back and everyone was feeling good. But eventually, whenever you play games back-to-back-to-back-to-back the physicality catches up to you. I felt that tonight a lot. I was tired tonight and I started to feel it there in the fourth quarter. So I definitely think it catches up to you but we've just got to do the little things like recovery, ice, and all that stuff."
On what they need to do to limit turnovers…
"I would say composure and everyone has got to get on the same page. We have some people that are on one page and another person on one page. I think Coach Mittie stresses to us, playing together. I think that's one thing that will help us reduce turnovers. If you make a turnover trying to do the right thing nobody is going to care. You've just gotta lift your head up and keep going. It's the turnovers where we get a little bit too frazzled and we get a little bit sped up and everyone is trying to make right play, like I've got to do it now, I've got to do it now instead of just seeing the easy play. I do the same thing. I missed a couple people in the corner trying to make the right play rather than just making the easy play and sometimes you just have to do that early in the shot clock. So I think everybody including myself, we've just got to slow it down. Take time, see the floor, because if something is not open something is open."
SYDNEY GOODSON, SENIOR GUARD
On the defensive adjustments with Ayoka Lee out …
"Yeah definitely having Yoki (Ayoka Lee) on the court is a big benefit to our team. We don't particularly like playing without Yoki but I think defensively is we've just got to pack it in a little bit more. Especially when you have people like Natasha Mack in there, the double team is going to come more often. But Yoki is a crucial part of our team and so whenever she's not in everybody else has to step up. We tried to do that tonight and obviously there's a lot of room for us to grow in that area. But yeah, box outs are huge as you can tell, rebounding hurt us a lot tonight. So being able to rebound when she is out of the game is going to be a big step for us."
On many of the starters playing a lot of minutes…
"I honestly think it's fun, I want to play as many minutes as I can and I think that my teammates feel the same way. I think it's just big to take care of your body on off-days, get in with recovery with our strength coach and stuff. But this is why we're here, to play basketball and I love it. I can't speak for anybody else but I want to play that many minutes and I want to be out on the court and I want to be fighting to win these games and come out on top one of these days."
Team Stats
OSU
KState
FG%
.355
.353
3FG%
.320
.400
FT%
.636
.684
RB
52
31
TO
13
15
STL
8
8
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
14
FGM
6
3FGM
2
FTM
0
Pts
11
FGM
3
3FGM
3
FTM
2
Pts
9
FGM
3
3FGM
1
FTM
2
Players Mentioned
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's BasketballG
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