Kansas State University Athletics
Wednesday, February 24
Manhattan, Kan.
6:30 p.m.
Kansas State University
7-14,2-12Big 12
86
vs
79
Texas Tech
10-13,5-12Big 12
1
2
3
4
F
Texas Tech
15
15
32
17
79
Kansas St.
19
25
26
16
86
K-State Holds Back Texas Tech on Wednesday Night
Feb 24, 2021 | Women's Basketball
MANHATTAN, Kansas – K-State built a double-digit lead at halftime with a strong night from Emilee Ebert and needed a near perfect performance from the foul line including clutch free throws from Christianna Carr in the second half to defeat Texas Tech, 86-79, on Wednesday night at Bramlage Coliseum.
With its win on Wednesday night, K-State women's basketball secured its 350th win in the 33-season history of Bramlage Coliseum. The Wildcat women's program owns an all-time mark in Bramlage of 350-146. K-State has won 10 or more games in Bramlage Coliseum 22 times since the building opened in the 1988-89 season.
K-State (7-14, 2-12 Big 12) used a pair of 8-0 runs in the first half to secure a 44-30 lead at halftime. Ebert sparked the Wildcats in the opening 20 minutes with 12 points on 5-of-5 shooting, including 2-of-2 from beyond the arc.
Ebert finished the night with a career-high 19 points on 6-of-11 shooting and pulled in five rebounds and pocketed a steal. The product of Frankfort, Kansas, has reached double figures in four games this season.
"I thought she had a good pace to her game," said K-State head coach Jeff Mittie about Ebert's career night. "I thought she had the right amount of aggressiveness in the drives that she had. She's playing through contact better which is something that we wanted her to keep improving on."
Carr finished the first half strong with K-State's final five points of the frame to stake the Wildcats to the 14-point lead. Carr recorded an old-fashioned 3-point play with 28 seconds left for a 42-30 lead.
After a Lady Raider turnover with eight seconds left, Carr drove to the basket completely unguarded to finish a layup at the buzzer to end the half.
Carr notched her second career double-double by tying her career-high with 24 points which included a 10-of-11 effort from the foul line while pulling in a career-high 11 rebounds. She also handed out three assists. This was Carr's 11th career game with 20 or more points, including her third this season.
The 44 first half points by the Wildcats were a season-high for an opening half. It marked the most points scored in a first half by K-State since scoring 45 against Oklahoma on January 25, 2020.
Texas Tech (10-13, 5-12 Big 12) narrowed the game to eight, 70-62, at the end of the third quarter, outscoring the Wildcats, 32-26, in the frame. K-State was 10-of-11 from the foul line and 4-of-8 from beyond the arc in the third period.
K-State opened the third quarter shooting 4-of-5 from the field, including 3-pointers from Ebert and Rachel Ranke to increase K-State's lead to 54-37 with 6:51 remaining and force a Texas Tech timeout.
Ranke finished the night with 14 points, including four connections from beyond the arc. She also hauled in four rebounds and handed out three assists. She needs nine points to become the 43rd player in program history to score 1,000 or more career points.
The Lady Raiders closed the margin in the third quarter with the aid of 4-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc and an 11-of-17 effort overall from the field in the quarter.
In the final quarter, K-State led by as many as nine on two occasions but Texas Tech trimmed the deficit to one, 80-79, with 1:44 remaining as Naje Murray made her third 3-pointer of the quarter. Both teams would be held without a field goal in the final minute and a half.
With 27 seconds remaining and in possession of the ball, Texas Tech's Bryn Gerlich threw an errant cross court pass which landed in the hands of Cymone Goodrich. After a K-State timeout to advance the ball, Carr was immediately fouled and calmly buried her two free throws for an 82-79 K-State lead with 21 seconds left.
After a Texas Tech timeout to advance the ball, the Lady Raiders found an open look for Murray but her attempt clanked off the back of the rim and into the arms of Carr. Carr was fouled and made her two free throws to put the Wildcats up 84-79 with 15 seconds left.
Another missed three by the Lady Raiders again found the arms of Carr, who was fouled with four seconds to play. She made both free throws to provide the final margin.
"It feels good when the ball is going in," said Carr about her 6-of-6 effort from the line in the closing second. "I was going through my head saying, 'don't miss don't miss' and I just had to concentrate and take deep breaths."
In the fourth quarter, K-State was 9-of-10 from the free throw line and were 19-of-21 for the entire second half.
The Wildcats finished the game shooting 40.0 percent (26-of-65) from the field including a season-high 11-of-27 from beyond the arc. The 11 made 3-pointers were the most since K-State made 11 against UIC on November 11, 2019.
Texas Tech registered a 46.6 percent (27-of-58) effort from the field and were 11-of-25 from the beyond the arc. The Lady Raiders were paced by Murray with 26 points including 8-of-11 from 3-point range. Vivian Gray added 24 points and six rebounds.
K-State will make its final trip to the state of Texas this season, as the Wildcats travel to Waco, Texas, to face (7/7) Baylor at 11 a.m., on Saturday, February 27. Saturday's game will be broadcast on Big 12 Now on ESPN+. The game will also air on the K-State Sports Network and for free at kstatesports.com.
What They Said
JEFF MITTIE, HEAD COACH
Opening Statement…
"Well it was good to put up some points tonight. I thought we got good performances from a lot of people that were more aggressive tonight. I thought Ebert in the first half was fantastic. I thought Rachel and Chrissy both had good second halves. It was hard to get Lee the basketball. We don't move it well enough right now, the timeliness to get it on a team that's sagging off of multiple people. So that's still an area that we struggle in getting the basketball inside. But 20 assists, 13 turnovers, that's a better number for us. Goodrich, nine assists, those are big numbers. We couldn't cool them off, that's for sure so we really had to outscore them because with the way Murray was playing and the way Gray was playing, we could not get them stopped so we were going to have to put up some points tonight."
On Emilee Ebert's first half performance...
"Yeah I thought she had a good pace to her game. I thought she had the right amount of aggressiveness in the drives that she had. She's playing through contact better which is something that we wanted her to keep improving on. So she's doing that much, much better. Yeah she had a good look from three. You could tell she wasn't hesitating on that shot. Sometimes when she's not feeling it she tends to hesitate. But she had a good look. Shoot, the one she missed was half way down, the thing kind of spun around and came up out of there. That thing was halfway down. So yeah she had a good look all night."
On if he still felt confident after Texas Tech cut the lead down...
"Well I think it's hard not to go back to it. I think that's the mental challenge. I was proud of our group for forcing that out of their head. We didn't talk about it obviously, we just went to the next possession. But obviously, you know you've had a big lead, people are coming back and Murray was just killing us. Murray is now 13-19 from three against us. That's good in a gym by yourself on the gun. We just couldn't get them stopped, Gray to the free throw line. The only thing that stopped Gray tonight was some foul trouble. Same thing with Ebert, the only thing that got her off the floor tonight was foul trouble. Yeah i thought our confidence was a little bit better down the stretch. Chrissy hit some huge free throws and that was critical for us."
On how they were able to get to the foul line so often...
"I think we were stronger with the ball. Certainly I think the game started, they called it a little tighter tonight than maybe sometimes. You could kind of tell that late, Gray was getting a hand-check here and there. Those are things that I felt like they were pretty consistent with all night so I felt like it was, probably for both teams, the right strategy to keep driving it. And both teams had trouble keeping each other off the free throw line. But yeah I thought our group, we had better balance there. We get Ebert there. I thought Chrissy made stronger moves. You look at our stat line, you've got Ebert with four. I thought Goodson got to the line some. So it's not a bad stat line from the free throw line."
CHRISSY CARR, JUNIOR GUARD
On closing the game at the free throw line…
"It feels good when the ball is going in. I was going through my head saying, "don't miss don't miss" and I just had to concentrate and take deep breaths."
On closing out tonight's game...
"There is always going to be that voice in the back of your head that's like, "holy crap deja vu". I feel like you just can't have that. With this team, we just have to realize that we are experienced enough and we have been in a heck of a lot of close games. So, I think the best part is just to keep trying to be motivated and try to continue to do the right thing and understand that mistakes are going to happen. That was my talk in the huddle. I said, 'Hey mistakes are going to happen, let's limit those as much as we can'. Because playing a perfect basketball game is impossible. Just got to continue that talk of letting people know that it's okay to make mistakes."
On providing a spark to the offense by getting to the line...
"We knew that they were in the bonus, so our talk in the huddle was to just continue to be aggressive. Either two things were going to happen. Either we are going to finish the layup or we are going to get fouled. We have a heck of a better chance doing that than just sitting out there shooting threes. So that was our talk, continue to be aggressive while we are in the bonus, take advantage of that, because those are points we can get to extend the lead. I think our team did a very good job of that"
EMILEE EBERT, SOPHOMORE GUARD
On being able to hold on for the win tonight...
"Every game is a big game for us. This game was personal and we knew that. We were going to do all it took to get the win and we did."
On being able to contribute in a big way tonight...
"Anything I can do to help the team get a win. So yes, this was a big one."
On staying consistent these last few games...
"I have been staying aggressive and putting a lot of work in. Practice every day is working to get better at the things I know I can do."
With its win on Wednesday night, K-State women's basketball secured its 350th win in the 33-season history of Bramlage Coliseum. The Wildcat women's program owns an all-time mark in Bramlage of 350-146. K-State has won 10 or more games in Bramlage Coliseum 22 times since the building opened in the 1988-89 season.
K-State (7-14, 2-12 Big 12) used a pair of 8-0 runs in the first half to secure a 44-30 lead at halftime. Ebert sparked the Wildcats in the opening 20 minutes with 12 points on 5-of-5 shooting, including 2-of-2 from beyond the arc.
Ebert finished the night with a career-high 19 points on 6-of-11 shooting and pulled in five rebounds and pocketed a steal. The product of Frankfort, Kansas, has reached double figures in four games this season.
"I thought she had a good pace to her game," said K-State head coach Jeff Mittie about Ebert's career night. "I thought she had the right amount of aggressiveness in the drives that she had. She's playing through contact better which is something that we wanted her to keep improving on."
Carr finished the first half strong with K-State's final five points of the frame to stake the Wildcats to the 14-point lead. Carr recorded an old-fashioned 3-point play with 28 seconds left for a 42-30 lead.
After a Lady Raider turnover with eight seconds left, Carr drove to the basket completely unguarded to finish a layup at the buzzer to end the half.
Carr notched her second career double-double by tying her career-high with 24 points which included a 10-of-11 effort from the foul line while pulling in a career-high 11 rebounds. She also handed out three assists. This was Carr's 11th career game with 20 or more points, including her third this season.
The 44 first half points by the Wildcats were a season-high for an opening half. It marked the most points scored in a first half by K-State since scoring 45 against Oklahoma on January 25, 2020.
Texas Tech (10-13, 5-12 Big 12) narrowed the game to eight, 70-62, at the end of the third quarter, outscoring the Wildcats, 32-26, in the frame. K-State was 10-of-11 from the foul line and 4-of-8 from beyond the arc in the third period.
K-State opened the third quarter shooting 4-of-5 from the field, including 3-pointers from Ebert and Rachel Ranke to increase K-State's lead to 54-37 with 6:51 remaining and force a Texas Tech timeout.
Ranke finished the night with 14 points, including four connections from beyond the arc. She also hauled in four rebounds and handed out three assists. She needs nine points to become the 43rd player in program history to score 1,000 or more career points.
The Lady Raiders closed the margin in the third quarter with the aid of 4-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc and an 11-of-17 effort overall from the field in the quarter.
In the final quarter, K-State led by as many as nine on two occasions but Texas Tech trimmed the deficit to one, 80-79, with 1:44 remaining as Naje Murray made her third 3-pointer of the quarter. Both teams would be held without a field goal in the final minute and a half.
With 27 seconds remaining and in possession of the ball, Texas Tech's Bryn Gerlich threw an errant cross court pass which landed in the hands of Cymone Goodrich. After a K-State timeout to advance the ball, Carr was immediately fouled and calmly buried her two free throws for an 82-79 K-State lead with 21 seconds left.
After a Texas Tech timeout to advance the ball, the Lady Raiders found an open look for Murray but her attempt clanked off the back of the rim and into the arms of Carr. Carr was fouled and made her two free throws to put the Wildcats up 84-79 with 15 seconds left.
Another missed three by the Lady Raiders again found the arms of Carr, who was fouled with four seconds to play. She made both free throws to provide the final margin.
"It feels good when the ball is going in," said Carr about her 6-of-6 effort from the line in the closing second. "I was going through my head saying, 'don't miss don't miss' and I just had to concentrate and take deep breaths."
In the fourth quarter, K-State was 9-of-10 from the free throw line and were 19-of-21 for the entire second half.
The Wildcats finished the game shooting 40.0 percent (26-of-65) from the field including a season-high 11-of-27 from beyond the arc. The 11 made 3-pointers were the most since K-State made 11 against UIC on November 11, 2019.
Texas Tech registered a 46.6 percent (27-of-58) effort from the field and were 11-of-25 from the beyond the arc. The Lady Raiders were paced by Murray with 26 points including 8-of-11 from 3-point range. Vivian Gray added 24 points and six rebounds.
K-State will make its final trip to the state of Texas this season, as the Wildcats travel to Waco, Texas, to face (7/7) Baylor at 11 a.m., on Saturday, February 27. Saturday's game will be broadcast on Big 12 Now on ESPN+. The game will also air on the K-State Sports Network and for free at kstatesports.com.
What They Said
JEFF MITTIE, HEAD COACH
Opening Statement…
"Well it was good to put up some points tonight. I thought we got good performances from a lot of people that were more aggressive tonight. I thought Ebert in the first half was fantastic. I thought Rachel and Chrissy both had good second halves. It was hard to get Lee the basketball. We don't move it well enough right now, the timeliness to get it on a team that's sagging off of multiple people. So that's still an area that we struggle in getting the basketball inside. But 20 assists, 13 turnovers, that's a better number for us. Goodrich, nine assists, those are big numbers. We couldn't cool them off, that's for sure so we really had to outscore them because with the way Murray was playing and the way Gray was playing, we could not get them stopped so we were going to have to put up some points tonight."
On Emilee Ebert's first half performance...
"Yeah I thought she had a good pace to her game. I thought she had the right amount of aggressiveness in the drives that she had. She's playing through contact better which is something that we wanted her to keep improving on. So she's doing that much, much better. Yeah she had a good look from three. You could tell she wasn't hesitating on that shot. Sometimes when she's not feeling it she tends to hesitate. But she had a good look. Shoot, the one she missed was half way down, the thing kind of spun around and came up out of there. That thing was halfway down. So yeah she had a good look all night."
On if he still felt confident after Texas Tech cut the lead down...
"Well I think it's hard not to go back to it. I think that's the mental challenge. I was proud of our group for forcing that out of their head. We didn't talk about it obviously, we just went to the next possession. But obviously, you know you've had a big lead, people are coming back and Murray was just killing us. Murray is now 13-19 from three against us. That's good in a gym by yourself on the gun. We just couldn't get them stopped, Gray to the free throw line. The only thing that stopped Gray tonight was some foul trouble. Same thing with Ebert, the only thing that got her off the floor tonight was foul trouble. Yeah i thought our confidence was a little bit better down the stretch. Chrissy hit some huge free throws and that was critical for us."
On how they were able to get to the foul line so often...
"I think we were stronger with the ball. Certainly I think the game started, they called it a little tighter tonight than maybe sometimes. You could kind of tell that late, Gray was getting a hand-check here and there. Those are things that I felt like they were pretty consistent with all night so I felt like it was, probably for both teams, the right strategy to keep driving it. And both teams had trouble keeping each other off the free throw line. But yeah I thought our group, we had better balance there. We get Ebert there. I thought Chrissy made stronger moves. You look at our stat line, you've got Ebert with four. I thought Goodson got to the line some. So it's not a bad stat line from the free throw line."
CHRISSY CARR, JUNIOR GUARD
On closing the game at the free throw line…
"It feels good when the ball is going in. I was going through my head saying, "don't miss don't miss" and I just had to concentrate and take deep breaths."
On closing out tonight's game...
"There is always going to be that voice in the back of your head that's like, "holy crap deja vu". I feel like you just can't have that. With this team, we just have to realize that we are experienced enough and we have been in a heck of a lot of close games. So, I think the best part is just to keep trying to be motivated and try to continue to do the right thing and understand that mistakes are going to happen. That was my talk in the huddle. I said, 'Hey mistakes are going to happen, let's limit those as much as we can'. Because playing a perfect basketball game is impossible. Just got to continue that talk of letting people know that it's okay to make mistakes."
On providing a spark to the offense by getting to the line...
"We knew that they were in the bonus, so our talk in the huddle was to just continue to be aggressive. Either two things were going to happen. Either we are going to finish the layup or we are going to get fouled. We have a heck of a better chance doing that than just sitting out there shooting threes. So that was our talk, continue to be aggressive while we are in the bonus, take advantage of that, because those are points we can get to extend the lead. I think our team did a very good job of that"
EMILEE EBERT, SOPHOMORE GUARD
On being able to hold on for the win tonight...
"Every game is a big game for us. This game was personal and we knew that. We were going to do all it took to get the win and we did."
On being able to contribute in a big way tonight...
"Anything I can do to help the team get a win. So yes, this was a big one."
On staying consistent these last few games...
"I have been staying aggressive and putting a lot of work in. Practice every day is working to get better at the things I know I can do."
Cats Win!
— K-State Women's Basketball (@KStateWBB) February 25, 2021
K-State holds off Texas Tech behind 24 points & 11 boards from Carr. Ebert (19), Ranke (14) & Lee (12) also were in double digits. #KStateWBB x Honor The Journey pic.twitter.com/UOXXPxu0Ig
Tonight's win is No. 3️⃣5️⃣0️⃣ for the 'Cats in the 32-season history at Bramlage Coliseum #KStateWBB pic.twitter.com/04vBt5w4Ja
— K-State Women's Basketball (@KStateWBB) February 25, 2021
Instant impact off the bench!
— K-State Women's Basketball (@KStateWBB) February 25, 2021
Goodson with the steal & 3 to give the Cats the early advantage. #KStateWBB 10
Texas Tech 7
4:47 | 1Q pic.twitter.com/qg6ZsOU7kv
Team Stats
TTU
KState
FG%
.466
.400
3FG%
.440
.407
FT%
.700
.852
RB
33
41
TO
13
13
STL
9
7
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
24
FGM
6
3FGM
2
FTM
10
Pts
19
FGM
6
3FGM
3
FTM
4
Pts
14
FGM
4
3FGM
4
FTM
2
Players Mentioned
G
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballG
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