SE: A Pair of Historic K-State Basketball Performances, 24 Hours Apart
Feb 01, 2021 | Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball, Sports Extra
By: Austin Siegel
On two different nights in 2000, everything started going in for Cortez Groves and Nicole Ohlde.
Groves was one of the best players on the Wildcats in 2000 and no stranger to heating up like this. But knocking down 8 three-pointers against Texas A&M was still a historic performance for the senior and the second best three-point shooting night in program history.
Later that year, Ohlde came off the bench against Wyoming in her second-ever college game and scored 36 points, the fifth-highest scoring game in K-State history.
Both records would stand for more than two decades.
And then, in about 24 hours at Bramlage Coliseum this weekend, a freshman and a sophomore crashed the party.
Nijel Pack made 8 three-pointers against Texas A&M on Saturday afternoon, matching Groves' historic night against those same Aggies.
Unlike Groves, Pack isn't a senior. He's a freshman who's played 14 college games.
Along with nine-year NBA veteran Steve Henson - who fired home 8 three-pointers against Iowa State in 1990 - Pack is now behind only one player, Askia Jones in 1994, for the best three-point shooting night in K-State history.
"It felt great just to be able to build up my confidence. My teammates kept finding me which made it even better," Pack said. "Just to be able to shoot the ball and see it go in is probably the best feeling for any basketball player."
It wasn't enough for the Wildcats to get the win in their Big 12/SEC Challenge matchup with Texas A&M, and that's what mattered to Pack as he looked back on his performance.
But if there was any doubt that K-State has a player to build around in 2021, those were erased eight different times on Saturday afternoon.
"Obviously Nijel is a great young talent," senior Mike McGuirl said. "He can really shoot the ball, so it's a lot of fun. It's a pleasure just to be able to dish the ball for the easy three."
Pack's rise to become one of the best shooters in the Big 12 hasn't been much of a rise at all.
In the first three games of his K-State career, Pack shot 10-of-19 from beyond the arc against Drake, Colorado and Kansas City. He's been dangerous since day one.
Maybe that shouldn't be a surprise for a four-star recruit.
But Pack's ability to take a jump shot that made him one of the best high school basketball players in Indiana and break it out against an SEC team as a freshman is remarkable.
Consider this: During his senior season at Lawrence Central in Indianapolis, Pack shot 40.3 percent from three-point range on a high school team that was one of the best in the entire state.
This season, in a conference where seven teams are currently ranked in the AP Top 25 or receiving votes, Pack's three-point percentage has dropped…by 0.8 percent.
He's shooting 39.5 percent from distance after Saturday's explosion against the Aggies.
"Nijel was special to go 8-for-14 from three," Bruce Weber said. "He kept coming up with big plays to keep us in the game and give us a chance."
On Sunday afternoon, Ayoka Lee stepped onto the same floor at Bramlage Coliseum and grabbed her own piece of K-State history.
The reigning Big 12 Freshman of the Year delivered a historic 37-point, 18-rebound performance in a loss to Oklahoma.
Just a year after her breakout freshman campaign, Lee came into this season with expectations, a spot on the All-Big 12 First Team and a place on just about every end-of-season award watch list.
She's been dealt a tough hand as a sophomore.
Lee was sidelined by an ankle injury in December, before the COVID-19 protocol forced K-State to pause their season for a month.
Against the Sooners, Lee had just four points after the first quarter. She might make it look easy on the court, but there's not a player in the Big 12 more comfortable battling through adversity.
"I think it took us a little bit to get going with the game plan," she said. "I think we struggled to execute it early on, but I think once we got going, it was good."
Lee was a matchup nightmare for Oklahoma, as she's too physically dominant a player to guard one-on-one and a talented free throw shooter who punished the Sooners from the stripe.
When it was over, Lee broke the K-State record for points in a Big 12 game, a mark that Brittany Chambers set against West Virginia back in 2013. It was also the most points scored by a sophomore in school history, a record that has stood since 1983.
She's been chipping away at the K-State record book since she arrived in Manhattan, so it might actually be more useful to grade Lee against herself.
The one thing that's dogged her this season has been foul trouble, but against Oklahoma, Lee was on the court for 37 minutes and didn't pick up her fourth foul until late in the final quarter.
"I definitely think it helped me as the game went on, especially in the end just being able to give a foul when we had to and not having to put it on my teammates," she said.
Between Pack's electric three-point shooting and Lee's dominance in the paint, the only thing these performances have in common is also the most disappointing: they came in a loss.
That made it tough to appreciate for both players after the game. But there's also something pretty remarkable about a freshman and a sophomore rewriting K-State Basketball history in one weekend.
Almost as remarkable as the time that both Pack, a freshman, and Lee, a sophomore, still have at K-State to to start putting these games in the win column.
"We just didn't make shots we needed down the stretch," Pack said. "It's a learning lesson. We definitely have a lot more games to play."
On two different nights in 2000, everything started going in for Cortez Groves and Nicole Ohlde.
Groves was one of the best players on the Wildcats in 2000 and no stranger to heating up like this. But knocking down 8 three-pointers against Texas A&M was still a historic performance for the senior and the second best three-point shooting night in program history.
Later that year, Ohlde came off the bench against Wyoming in her second-ever college game and scored 36 points, the fifth-highest scoring game in K-State history.
Both records would stand for more than two decades.
And then, in about 24 hours at Bramlage Coliseum this weekend, a freshman and a sophomore crashed the party.
Nijel Pack made 8 three-pointers against Texas A&M on Saturday afternoon, matching Groves' historic night against those same Aggies.
Unlike Groves, Pack isn't a senior. He's a freshman who's played 14 college games.
Along with nine-year NBA veteran Steve Henson - who fired home 8 three-pointers against Iowa State in 1990 - Pack is now behind only one player, Askia Jones in 1994, for the best three-point shooting night in K-State history.
"It felt great just to be able to build up my confidence. My teammates kept finding me which made it even better," Pack said. "Just to be able to shoot the ball and see it go in is probably the best feeling for any basketball player."
It wasn't enough for the Wildcats to get the win in their Big 12/SEC Challenge matchup with Texas A&M, and that's what mattered to Pack as he looked back on his performance.
But if there was any doubt that K-State has a player to build around in 2021, those were erased eight different times on Saturday afternoon.
Have a day @NijelPack24
— K-State Men's Basketball (@KStateMBB) January 30, 2021
✅ Career High Pts - 21
✅ Career High 3PM/A - 7/12#KStateMBB x EMAW pic.twitter.com/80PTEF163S
"Obviously Nijel is a great young talent," senior Mike McGuirl said. "He can really shoot the ball, so it's a lot of fun. It's a pleasure just to be able to dish the ball for the easy three."
Pack's rise to become one of the best shooters in the Big 12 hasn't been much of a rise at all.
In the first three games of his K-State career, Pack shot 10-of-19 from beyond the arc against Drake, Colorado and Kansas City. He's been dangerous since day one.
Maybe that shouldn't be a surprise for a four-star recruit.
But Pack's ability to take a jump shot that made him one of the best high school basketball players in Indiana and break it out against an SEC team as a freshman is remarkable.
Consider this: During his senior season at Lawrence Central in Indianapolis, Pack shot 40.3 percent from three-point range on a high school team that was one of the best in the entire state.
This season, in a conference where seven teams are currently ranked in the AP Top 25 or receiving votes, Pack's three-point percentage has dropped…by 0.8 percent.
He's shooting 39.5 percent from distance after Saturday's explosion against the Aggies.
"Nijel was special to go 8-for-14 from three," Bruce Weber said. "He kept coming up with big plays to keep us in the game and give us a chance."
On Sunday afternoon, Ayoka Lee stepped onto the same floor at Bramlage Coliseum and grabbed her own piece of K-State history.
The reigning Big 12 Freshman of the Year delivered a historic 37-point, 18-rebound performance in a loss to Oklahoma.
Just a year after her breakout freshman campaign, Lee came into this season with expectations, a spot on the All-Big 12 First Team and a place on just about every end-of-season award watch list.
She's been dealt a tough hand as a sophomore.
Lee was sidelined by an ankle injury in December, before the COVID-19 protocol forced K-State to pause their season for a month.
Against the Sooners, Lee had just four points after the first quarter. She might make it look easy on the court, but there's not a player in the Big 12 more comfortable battling through adversity.
"I think it took us a little bit to get going with the game plan," she said. "I think we struggled to execute it early on, but I think once we got going, it was good."
Lee was a matchup nightmare for Oklahoma, as she's too physically dominant a player to guard one-on-one and a talented free throw shooter who punished the Sooners from the stripe.
When it was over, Lee broke the K-State record for points in a Big 12 game, a mark that Brittany Chambers set against West Virginia back in 2013. It was also the most points scored by a sophomore in school history, a record that has stood since 1983.
That's a career-high 35 points for @Yokie50! #KStateWBB x Honor The Journey pic.twitter.com/UDWTFdVl8T
— K-State Women's Basketball (@KStateWBB) January 31, 2021
She's been chipping away at the K-State record book since she arrived in Manhattan, so it might actually be more useful to grade Lee against herself.
The one thing that's dogged her this season has been foul trouble, but against Oklahoma, Lee was on the court for 37 minutes and didn't pick up her fourth foul until late in the final quarter.
"I definitely think it helped me as the game went on, especially in the end just being able to give a foul when we had to and not having to put it on my teammates," she said.
Between Pack's electric three-point shooting and Lee's dominance in the paint, the only thing these performances have in common is also the most disappointing: they came in a loss.
That made it tough to appreciate for both players after the game. But there's also something pretty remarkable about a freshman and a sophomore rewriting K-State Basketball history in one weekend.
Almost as remarkable as the time that both Pack, a freshman, and Lee, a sophomore, still have at K-State to to start putting these games in the win column.
"We just didn't make shots we needed down the stretch," Pack said. "It's a learning lesson. We definitely have a lot more games to play."
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