SE: Putting in the Work is Paying Off for Frankfort Native Emilee Ebert
Feb 26, 2021 | Women's Basketball, Sports Extra
By: Austin Siegel
Emilee Ebert remembers sitting in the stands at Bramlage Coliseum in high school, watching K-State take on No. 1 UConn.
Growing up in Frankfort, with a population around 700, it wasn't every day Ebert could drive 45 minutes down the road and watch the Wildcats play a team with future WNBA stars like Katie Lou Samuelson and Napheesa Collier.
Over 12,000 fans packed into the arena that night, one of the largest crowds to watch a women's basketball game anywhere in the country that season.
"It was just a really cool atmosphere," she said.
There were considerably fewer fans in attendance on Wednesday night at Bramlage, with limited-capacity crowds the norm throughout the 2020-21 season.
It didn't slow down Ebert, who posted a career-high 19 points in an 86-79 win over Texas Tech.
"She had a good pace to her game. I thought she had the right amount of aggressiveness in the drives that she had," head coach Jeff Mittie said. "She's playing through contact better which is something that we wanted her to keep improving on. She's doing that much, much better."
Ebert's jump shot has been a late-season revelation for K-State. She went 3-for-4 from beyond the arc against Texas Tech, the most three-pointers she's drained in a game this season.
The word her head coach used was confidence.
"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," Mittie said. "Shoot, the one she missed was halfway down, the thing kind of spun around and came up out of there. She had good looks all night."
Ebert has also been the team's most reliable on-ball defender since the season began back in November. She's currently third on K-State in steals and fourth in defensive rebounds.
Crucially, she's the only Wildcat to play in and start every game of the season.
"Every game is a big game for us," Ebert said. "This game was personal, and we knew that. We were going to do all it took to get the win and we did."
Her first points of the game came on a driving right-handed layup, a move that Ebert went back to later in the half.
Her head coach talked postgame about how much the Wildcats have missed the presence of a power forward like Peyton Williams, who can make life easier for All-Big 12 center Ayoka Lee.
The six-foot Ebert isn't a back-to-the-basket player like Williams. But she's a scoring threat at the rim and beyond the arc, so Big 12 teams can't just stay home and double-team Lee all night.
That could be huge for the Wildcats.
"Anything I can do to help the team get a win," she said. "This was a big one."
Ebert was most dangerous when the Lady Raiders left her alone on the perimeter, where as her head coach pointed out, she didn't hesitate to let it fly as K-State built an early lead.
It's important to remember that Ebert wasn't originally planning to stick around in Manhattan after high school. The four-time All-Flint Hills First Team honoree was headed to Missouri State before an open scholarship allowed the Wildcats to sign the local star in the summer of 2019.
She was a rotation player for the Wildcats a season ago, averaging less than two points a game coming off the bench, but nobody has made a bigger jump throughout the 2020-21 season.
It doesn't seem like a coincidence that Ebert's two best shooting nights of the season – Wednesday against the Lady Raiders and a 16-point performance last week against Kansas – have come in a pair of conference wins for the Wildcats.
The secret to back-to-back win at Bramlage? It might just be a player who's been coming to games in Manhattan since high school.
"I've been staying aggressive and putting a lot of work in," Ebert said. "Practice every day is working to get better at the things I know I can do."
Emilee Ebert remembers sitting in the stands at Bramlage Coliseum in high school, watching K-State take on No. 1 UConn.
Growing up in Frankfort, with a population around 700, it wasn't every day Ebert could drive 45 minutes down the road and watch the Wildcats play a team with future WNBA stars like Katie Lou Samuelson and Napheesa Collier.
Over 12,000 fans packed into the arena that night, one of the largest crowds to watch a women's basketball game anywhere in the country that season.
"It was just a really cool atmosphere," she said.
There were considerably fewer fans in attendance on Wednesday night at Bramlage, with limited-capacity crowds the norm throughout the 2020-21 season.
It didn't slow down Ebert, who posted a career-high 19 points in an 86-79 win over Texas Tech.
"She had a good pace to her game. I thought she had the right amount of aggressiveness in the drives that she had," head coach Jeff Mittie said. "She's playing through contact better which is something that we wanted her to keep improving on. She's doing that much, much better."
Ebert's jump shot has been a late-season revelation for K-State. She went 3-for-4 from beyond the arc against Texas Tech, the most three-pointers she's drained in a game this season.
The word her head coach used was confidence.
"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," Mittie said. "Shoot, the one she missed was halfway down, the thing kind of spun around and came up out of there. She had good looks all night."
Ebert has also been the team's most reliable on-ball defender since the season began back in November. She's currently third on K-State in steals and fourth in defensive rebounds.
Crucially, she's the only Wildcat to play in and start every game of the season.
"Every game is a big game for us," Ebert said. "This game was personal, and we knew that. We were going to do all it took to get the win and we did."
Her first points of the game came on a driving right-handed layup, a move that Ebert went back to later in the half.
Her head coach talked postgame about how much the Wildcats have missed the presence of a power forward like Peyton Williams, who can make life easier for All-Big 12 center Ayoka Lee.
The six-foot Ebert isn't a back-to-the-basket player like Williams. But she's a scoring threat at the rim and beyond the arc, so Big 12 teams can't just stay home and double-team Lee all night.
That could be huge for the Wildcats.
"Anything I can do to help the team get a win," she said. "This was a big one."
Ebert was most dangerous when the Lady Raiders left her alone on the perimeter, where as her head coach pointed out, she didn't hesitate to let it fly as K-State built an early lead.
It's important to remember that Ebert wasn't originally planning to stick around in Manhattan after high school. The four-time All-Flint Hills First Team honoree was headed to Missouri State before an open scholarship allowed the Wildcats to sign the local star in the summer of 2019.
She was a rotation player for the Wildcats a season ago, averaging less than two points a game coming off the bench, but nobody has made a bigger jump throughout the 2020-21 season.
It doesn't seem like a coincidence that Ebert's two best shooting nights of the season – Wednesday against the Lady Raiders and a 16-point performance last week against Kansas – have come in a pair of conference wins for the Wildcats.
The secret to back-to-back win at Bramlage? It might just be a player who's been coming to games in Manhattan since high school.
"I've been staying aggressive and putting a lot of work in," Ebert said. "Practice every day is working to get better at the things I know I can do."
Players Mentioned
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