Kansas State University Athletics
Monday, November 10
Manhattan, Kan.
6:30 p.m.
Kansas State University
3-0,0-0Big 12
89
vs
61
Lamar
0-2,0-0Southland
1
2
3
4
F
Lamar University
20
12
14
15
61
Kansas St.
20
28
18
23
89
(rv/25) K-State Wins Third Straight by Downing Lamar
Nov 10, 2025 | Women's Basketball
MANHATTAN, Kansas – (rv/25) K-State used a late second quarter run to distance themselves from Lamar before halftime and never looked back on the way to an 89-61 win on Monday night at Bramlage Coliseum.
K-State (3-0) was led by junior guard Taryn Sides with a game-high 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting to go with five assists and four steals.
Joining Sides in double figures was sophomore guard Izela Arenas with 18 points off the bench on 7-of-11 shooting.
In her first career start, freshman guard Jordan Speiser carded her first career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Freshman guard Brandie Harrod added 10 points and three rebounds.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- K-State broke open a two-point lead, 31-29, with a 21-3 run to span the first and second halves. Sides started the run with a three-pointer with 3:29 remaining in the second quarter. Sides connected on her second 3-pointer with 2:28 to play in and Arenas followed with a putback layup on K-State's next possession.
- Freshman guard Gina Garcia added a layup with 1:17 left. Sides would beat the halftime buzzer with a driving layup to stake the Wildcats to a 48-32 halftime lead.
- Sides would make the first basket of the third quarter and Arenas added a driving layup with 8:53 to play in the third quarter and force a Lamar (0-2) timeout with the Wildcats leading 52-32.
- K-State would hold a 20-point lead entering the fourth frame, 66-46.
- The Cardinals would narrow the margin to 17, 70-53, with 8:10 to play in the final stanza, but the Wildcats answered with a 15-2 run to bring the margin up to 30, 85-55, with 3:10 left. Sides and Arenas each registered five points during the run to seal the win.
- K-State shot 51.6 percent (33-of-64) from the field including 32.0 percent (8-of-25) from long distance. The Wildcats tallied 48 points in the paint, the second time this season K-State has scored at least 48 points in the lane.
QUICK FACTS
- K-State leads the series with Lamar, 6-0. The Wildcats are 12-1 (.923) against current members of the Southland Conference.
- K-State head coach Jeff Mittie owns a career record of 675-378 (.641), including a mark of 221-143 (.607).
- K-State is 415-157 (.726) in its 38th-season inside Bramlage Coliseum, including a 145-49 (.747) record under Mittie. The Wildcats are 240-30 (.889) in non-conference games in Bramlage including an 86-9 (.905) mark during Mittie's time with at K-State. The Wildcats have won 11 straight home games against non-conference foes.
- The Wildcats are 169-55 (.754) in games played in the month of November, including wins in 57 of its last 69 games in the month. Under head coach Jeff Mittie, K-State is 55-12 (.821) in games during the 11th month.
TEAM NOTES
- K-State's starting five consisted of guards Gina Garcia, Brandie Harrod, Tess Heal, Taryn Sides, and Jordan Speiser. This was the first time this lineup has started together this season. This was the 77th career start for Heal and her third at K-State. This was the third career starts for Harrod and Sides. This was the first career start for Garcia and Speiser.
- The Wildcats held a 48-32 lead at halftime on Monday. Under Mittie, K-State is 178-21 (.894) when leading at halftime.
- The Wildcats registered three quarters with 20 or more points on Monday. Since the start of the quarter system in 2015-16, K-State is 162-65 (.714) when scoring 20 or more points in any quarter in a game. K-State has six quarters this season with 20 or more points scored.
- K-State had the edge on the glass, 36-28. Over the last four seasons, K-State is 67-7 (.905) when having the rebounding advantage.
PLAYER NOTES
- Sides reached double figures in points for the 20th time in her career. This was her third career game with 20 or more points.
- Sides tallied her 17th career game and her second this season with five or more assists. She improved her career assist total to 208.
- Sides made two or more 3-point field goals in a game for the 33rd time in her career.
- Sides pocketed four steals on Monday. This was her fourth career game with four or more steals. Sides collected her 14th career game with two or more steals.
- Arenas surpassed double figures in scoring for the seventh time in her career and the second time this season.
- Speiser tallied her first career game with 10 or more points.
- Speiser hauled in five or more rebounds for the first time in her career.
- Harrod carded her first career game with double figures in scoring.
- Sophomore center Ramiya White pulled in five rebounds. This was her second career game with five or more rebounds and her first this season.
FROM THE HEAD COACH
K-State Head Coach Jeff Mittie
On the focus of controlling the ball and minimizing turnovers…
"I mean, anytime you turn the ball over that few times, I think it's good. I thought our guards played really well tonight. I thought Gina (Garcia), (Izela) Arenas, and Taryn (Sides) really played well tonight, so that sets the tone for it. And, I think Lamar is a scrappy, tough team, and so for us to be able to control the ball like that's pretty good."
On half court offense…
"I mean, we're coming off of a 46-point game, so there wasn't a whole lot I liked offensively a couple days ago. I think we're a long ways away offensively in the half court. Today, we rebounded well enough. You saw the parts of the game that gave us trouble were when we fouled them and put them to the free throw line. The game got bogged down. Got in a half court game. But that's to be expected. We've got a lot of new pieces in there, so the chemistry of working together, everybody connecting is just going to take some time. So we're seeing better things every game but, it's not going to be a straight line of improvement. I was telling a couple players, like everybody always thinks you just start here, and you just get better and better and better. And that's not how it works, you get a little bit better, and then you take a couple steps back, and then you get a little bit better. And you hope that's how it goes, right? So, I think there were stretches of this game where it looked really bad, and there were stretches of this game where you saw it look really good."
On Jordan Speiser's play tonight…
"I thought (Jordan) Speiser rebounded really well. I thought she did some really nice things off the bounce. I just think she's taken some hard threes. She comes in with a reputation as a shooter, so they're aware of her shot and so, it's going to require a little bit of patience on her part. I like the attitude that she has about being certainly ready to shoot it. But I think as we progress, she's going to get better and better looks. But I like the fact she did a lot of things tonight better. I told her yesterday, I think her defense continues to get better. You saw tonight, the rebounding, so she's doing more things."
On the inside presence offensively by the team in the first three games…
"I think we've gotten there differently. I think Arenas has been able to get there more. We've seen Brandie Harrod get there. You saw Speiser get there tonight. Certainly in our pick and roll game it's an area that we're improving. We got a long ways to go, but it's not going to be the way it was a year ago. We did see Ramiya White get some looks down there. Ramiya continues to work hard, and I think she's going to continue to improve, so we're just gonna have to get there differently."
On what the process is of having four games in eight days…
"I think anytime you play a lot of games, particularly with a young team, you try to find a balance of working on you and working on the scout. I don't want to get too far away from working on us because we have so many fundamental things that we need to just continue to build on. I thought coming out of the SMU game was the best defensive game we had played. Going back on film, I was really proud of our group, how connected they were defensively, and I thought our habits looked really good. I thought tonight was a very average defensive game. So, that's the balance with playing games. You start to see some slippage of your habits. So, it's going to be a concerted effort not to overload them with scouts. We've got to continue to improve. We've got to keep the focus on us getting better together in practice. When you have a veteran team, they have better habits, the slippage is less. We'll get back to us. We've got tomorrow off. The other part of that is balancing rest with work. We'll get tomorrow off. We'll come back Wednesday, but Wednesday's practice will be 90% us, because I want to make sure we continue to build those good habits."
FROM THE FLOOR
K-State Junior Guard Taryn Sides
On how they broke away from Lamar…
"I think the main thing was we stopped fouling as much as we did in the first quarter. I think Coach (Jeff) Mittie said they went to the line 12 or 14 times in the first quarter, and it's hard to get going when you have to stop every other possession. So I think we just locked in better defensively, and we were able to push in transition and offense got into a little bit of a flow."
On rotating the lineup…
"I think Coach Mittie has mixed up the lineup so that we've been able to work with different people and I mean, it's a continued process of meshing together and learning from each other even more. I think that's how this year will be for the first half of it. I'm just trying to get better and learn from each game. We're a young group, so I just have to take it and make it better."
On Jordan Speiser shooting the three…
"[Jordan Speiser] is through the roof. She can really shoot that thing. I know she probably hasn't shot as well as she's wanted to, but I know it's coming. She shoots it really well in practice, and I know that will translate to the game and she's continued to grow in other areas as well. Today, she got to the basket better. I think her defense has gotten better throughout these past three games. I think I'm excited to see where she can get to."
K-State Freshman Guard Jordan Speiser
On getting her first career double-double…
"It just came from rebounding. My shots [are] not falling right now, but they'll start falling. I understood that, and still shot eight threes, but I understood that I needed to get to the basket and needed to impact the game in other ways, and felt like I hustled hard and got that done."
On if it's hard to keep the misses out of her mind…
"It's extremely hard, but I have coaches instilling confidence in me and just telling me to keep shooting. They're going to fall, so I'm not worried about it."
On when she found out she would be making her first career start…
"I learned that right before we ran out for our last warm up– and the feeling, it was great. That's every player's goal. I was just really happy and really excited. So that was great."
UP NEXT
K-State continues its four-game homestand on Thursday, as the Wildcats host South Dakota at 4 p.m. Thursday is a women's/men's doubleheader, as the K-State men will host California at 8 p.m. Tickets for Thursday's games are available by calling (800) 221-CATS, online at kstatesports.com/tickets and on gameday at the Bramlage Coliseum ticket windows.
Thursday's game is a Pre-Game Fan Favorites night. Stop by the concession stands prior to select weekday women's basketball games to receive $1 off water, fountain drinks, hot dogs, and nachos from the time doors open until the playing of the National Anthem (while supplies last).
The game will be streamed live on ESPN+ and can be heard on the K-State Sports Network, online at kstatesports.com and on the K-State Sports app and the flagship stations of K-State women's basketball in Manhattan, Sunny 102.5 and 1350 KMAN.
K-State (3-0) was led by junior guard Taryn Sides with a game-high 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting to go with five assists and four steals.
Joining Sides in double figures was sophomore guard Izela Arenas with 18 points off the bench on 7-of-11 shooting.
In her first career start, freshman guard Jordan Speiser carded her first career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Freshman guard Brandie Harrod added 10 points and three rebounds.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- K-State broke open a two-point lead, 31-29, with a 21-3 run to span the first and second halves. Sides started the run with a three-pointer with 3:29 remaining in the second quarter. Sides connected on her second 3-pointer with 2:28 to play in and Arenas followed with a putback layup on K-State's next possession.
- Freshman guard Gina Garcia added a layup with 1:17 left. Sides would beat the halftime buzzer with a driving layup to stake the Wildcats to a 48-32 halftime lead.
- Sides would make the first basket of the third quarter and Arenas added a driving layup with 8:53 to play in the third quarter and force a Lamar (0-2) timeout with the Wildcats leading 52-32.
- K-State would hold a 20-point lead entering the fourth frame, 66-46.
- The Cardinals would narrow the margin to 17, 70-53, with 8:10 to play in the final stanza, but the Wildcats answered with a 15-2 run to bring the margin up to 30, 85-55, with 3:10 left. Sides and Arenas each registered five points during the run to seal the win.
- K-State shot 51.6 percent (33-of-64) from the field including 32.0 percent (8-of-25) from long distance. The Wildcats tallied 48 points in the paint, the second time this season K-State has scored at least 48 points in the lane.
QUICK FACTS
- K-State leads the series with Lamar, 6-0. The Wildcats are 12-1 (.923) against current members of the Southland Conference.
- K-State head coach Jeff Mittie owns a career record of 675-378 (.641), including a mark of 221-143 (.607).
- K-State is 415-157 (.726) in its 38th-season inside Bramlage Coliseum, including a 145-49 (.747) record under Mittie. The Wildcats are 240-30 (.889) in non-conference games in Bramlage including an 86-9 (.905) mark during Mittie's time with at K-State. The Wildcats have won 11 straight home games against non-conference foes.
- The Wildcats are 169-55 (.754) in games played in the month of November, including wins in 57 of its last 69 games in the month. Under head coach Jeff Mittie, K-State is 55-12 (.821) in games during the 11th month.
TEAM NOTES
- K-State's starting five consisted of guards Gina Garcia, Brandie Harrod, Tess Heal, Taryn Sides, and Jordan Speiser. This was the first time this lineup has started together this season. This was the 77th career start for Heal and her third at K-State. This was the third career starts for Harrod and Sides. This was the first career start for Garcia and Speiser.
- The Wildcats held a 48-32 lead at halftime on Monday. Under Mittie, K-State is 178-21 (.894) when leading at halftime.
- The Wildcats registered three quarters with 20 or more points on Monday. Since the start of the quarter system in 2015-16, K-State is 162-65 (.714) when scoring 20 or more points in any quarter in a game. K-State has six quarters this season with 20 or more points scored.
- K-State had the edge on the glass, 36-28. Over the last four seasons, K-State is 67-7 (.905) when having the rebounding advantage.
PLAYER NOTES
- Sides reached double figures in points for the 20th time in her career. This was her third career game with 20 or more points.
- Sides tallied her 17th career game and her second this season with five or more assists. She improved her career assist total to 208.
- Sides made two or more 3-point field goals in a game for the 33rd time in her career.
- Sides pocketed four steals on Monday. This was her fourth career game with four or more steals. Sides collected her 14th career game with two or more steals.
- Arenas surpassed double figures in scoring for the seventh time in her career and the second time this season.
- Speiser tallied her first career game with 10 or more points.
- Speiser hauled in five or more rebounds for the first time in her career.
- Harrod carded her first career game with double figures in scoring.
- Sophomore center Ramiya White pulled in five rebounds. This was her second career game with five or more rebounds and her first this season.
FROM THE HEAD COACH
K-State Head Coach Jeff Mittie
On the focus of controlling the ball and minimizing turnovers…
"I mean, anytime you turn the ball over that few times, I think it's good. I thought our guards played really well tonight. I thought Gina (Garcia), (Izela) Arenas, and Taryn (Sides) really played well tonight, so that sets the tone for it. And, I think Lamar is a scrappy, tough team, and so for us to be able to control the ball like that's pretty good."
On half court offense…
"I mean, we're coming off of a 46-point game, so there wasn't a whole lot I liked offensively a couple days ago. I think we're a long ways away offensively in the half court. Today, we rebounded well enough. You saw the parts of the game that gave us trouble were when we fouled them and put them to the free throw line. The game got bogged down. Got in a half court game. But that's to be expected. We've got a lot of new pieces in there, so the chemistry of working together, everybody connecting is just going to take some time. So we're seeing better things every game but, it's not going to be a straight line of improvement. I was telling a couple players, like everybody always thinks you just start here, and you just get better and better and better. And that's not how it works, you get a little bit better, and then you take a couple steps back, and then you get a little bit better. And you hope that's how it goes, right? So, I think there were stretches of this game where it looked really bad, and there were stretches of this game where you saw it look really good."
On Jordan Speiser's play tonight…
"I thought (Jordan) Speiser rebounded really well. I thought she did some really nice things off the bounce. I just think she's taken some hard threes. She comes in with a reputation as a shooter, so they're aware of her shot and so, it's going to require a little bit of patience on her part. I like the attitude that she has about being certainly ready to shoot it. But I think as we progress, she's going to get better and better looks. But I like the fact she did a lot of things tonight better. I told her yesterday, I think her defense continues to get better. You saw tonight, the rebounding, so she's doing more things."
On the inside presence offensively by the team in the first three games…
"I think we've gotten there differently. I think Arenas has been able to get there more. We've seen Brandie Harrod get there. You saw Speiser get there tonight. Certainly in our pick and roll game it's an area that we're improving. We got a long ways to go, but it's not going to be the way it was a year ago. We did see Ramiya White get some looks down there. Ramiya continues to work hard, and I think she's going to continue to improve, so we're just gonna have to get there differently."
On what the process is of having four games in eight days…
"I think anytime you play a lot of games, particularly with a young team, you try to find a balance of working on you and working on the scout. I don't want to get too far away from working on us because we have so many fundamental things that we need to just continue to build on. I thought coming out of the SMU game was the best defensive game we had played. Going back on film, I was really proud of our group, how connected they were defensively, and I thought our habits looked really good. I thought tonight was a very average defensive game. So, that's the balance with playing games. You start to see some slippage of your habits. So, it's going to be a concerted effort not to overload them with scouts. We've got to continue to improve. We've got to keep the focus on us getting better together in practice. When you have a veteran team, they have better habits, the slippage is less. We'll get back to us. We've got tomorrow off. The other part of that is balancing rest with work. We'll get tomorrow off. We'll come back Wednesday, but Wednesday's practice will be 90% us, because I want to make sure we continue to build those good habits."
FROM THE FLOOR
K-State Junior Guard Taryn Sides
On how they broke away from Lamar…
"I think the main thing was we stopped fouling as much as we did in the first quarter. I think Coach (Jeff) Mittie said they went to the line 12 or 14 times in the first quarter, and it's hard to get going when you have to stop every other possession. So I think we just locked in better defensively, and we were able to push in transition and offense got into a little bit of a flow."
On rotating the lineup…
"I think Coach Mittie has mixed up the lineup so that we've been able to work with different people and I mean, it's a continued process of meshing together and learning from each other even more. I think that's how this year will be for the first half of it. I'm just trying to get better and learn from each game. We're a young group, so I just have to take it and make it better."
On Jordan Speiser shooting the three…
"[Jordan Speiser] is through the roof. She can really shoot that thing. I know she probably hasn't shot as well as she's wanted to, but I know it's coming. She shoots it really well in practice, and I know that will translate to the game and she's continued to grow in other areas as well. Today, she got to the basket better. I think her defense has gotten better throughout these past three games. I think I'm excited to see where she can get to."
K-State Freshman Guard Jordan Speiser
On getting her first career double-double…
"It just came from rebounding. My shots [are] not falling right now, but they'll start falling. I understood that, and still shot eight threes, but I understood that I needed to get to the basket and needed to impact the game in other ways, and felt like I hustled hard and got that done."
On if it's hard to keep the misses out of her mind…
"It's extremely hard, but I have coaches instilling confidence in me and just telling me to keep shooting. They're going to fall, so I'm not worried about it."
On when she found out she would be making her first career start…
"I learned that right before we ran out for our last warm up– and the feeling, it was great. That's every player's goal. I was just really happy and really excited. So that was great."
UP NEXT
K-State continues its four-game homestand on Thursday, as the Wildcats host South Dakota at 4 p.m. Thursday is a women's/men's doubleheader, as the K-State men will host California at 8 p.m. Tickets for Thursday's games are available by calling (800) 221-CATS, online at kstatesports.com/tickets and on gameday at the Bramlage Coliseum ticket windows.
Thursday's game is a Pre-Game Fan Favorites night. Stop by the concession stands prior to select weekday women's basketball games to receive $1 off water, fountain drinks, hot dogs, and nachos from the time doors open until the playing of the National Anthem (while supplies last).
The game will be streamed live on ESPN+ and can be heard on the K-State Sports Network, online at kstatesports.com and on the K-State Sports app and the flagship stations of K-State women's basketball in Manhattan, Sunny 102.5 and 1350 KMAN.
How to follow the Cats: For complete information on K-State Women's Basketball, visit www.kstatesports.com and follow the team's social media channels on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram.
Team Stats
Lamar
KState
FG%
.373
.516
3FG%
.412
.320
FT%
.727
.682
RB
28
36
TO
14
5
STL
2
8
Game Leaders
Pts
20
FGM
8
3FGM
4
FTM
0
Pts
18
FGM
7
3FGM
2
FTM
2
Pts
11
FGM
5
3FGM
1
FTM
0
Pts
10
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
4
Players Mentioned
G
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's Basketball
C
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