Kansas State University Athletics
Tuesday, November 18
Manhattan, Kan.
6:30 p.m.
Kansas State University
4-2,0-0Big 12
81
vs
59
Troy
3-1,0-0Sun Belt
1
2
3
4
F
Troy
12
16
13
18
59
Kansas St.
15
20
24
22
81
Photo by: K-State Sports
Photo by: K-State Sports
Photo by: K-State Sports
Photo by: K-State Sports
Photo by: K-State Sports
Photo by: K-State Sports
Photo by: K-State Sports
Photo by: K-State Sports
Photo by: K-State Sports
Photo by: K-State Sports
Photo by: K-State Sports
K-State Grinds Out Win Over Troy
Nov 18, 2025 | Women's Basketball
MANHATTAN, Kansas – Playing its fourth game in eight days, K-State women's basketball fought its way to an 81-59 win over Troy at Bramlage Coliseum on Tuesday night.
K-State (4-2) was paced by freshman guard Jordan Speiser with her second double-double, as she tallied 13 points and 10 rebounds.
Joining Speiser in double figures were freshman guard Brandie Harrod with 12 points and four rebounds, while senior guard Tess Heal added 11 points and nine rebounds.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Wildcats shot 33.3 percent (12-of-36) from the field in the opening half, but were perfect from the foul line (9-of-9) to hold a 35-28 lead at halftime. Defensively, K-State held Troy (3-1) to a 25.0 percent (11-of-44) effort from the floor.
- K-State strung together a 16-2 run midway through the third quarter to build a 57-38 lead with 1:10 remaining in the frame. Five different Wildcats scored during the run, highlighted by five points from freshman guard Gina Garcia. The product of Barcelona, Spain, ended the night with eight points and five assists.
- The Wildcats would win the third quarter, 24-13, and hold a 59-41 lead entering the final stanza. K-State shot 47.4 percent (9-of-19) from the floor in the third.
- K-State had its best shooting percentage of the night in the fourth quarter, tabulating a 52.9 percent (9-of-17) performance from the field. The Wildcats made four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, equaling their makes from the first three quarters.
- For the night, the Wildcats shot 41.7 percent (30-of-72) performance from the field and tallied an 86.7 percent (13-of-15) effort from the foul line.
- Defensively, K-State held Troy to a 26.5 percent (22-of-83) effort from the field. This was the second-lowest shooting percentage by a K-State opponent this season (25.5 percent; Omaha, Nov. 3).
- The teams combined for 105 rebounds in the game, as Troy held the slight edge, 55-50.
QUICK FACTS
- This was the first meeting in the series between K-State and Troy. The Wildcats are 11-8 (.579) against current members of the Sun Belt.
- The Wildcats are 8-1 against schools from the state of Alabama.
- K-State head coach Jeff Mittie owns a career record of 676-380 (.640), including a mark of 222-145 (.605).
- K-State is 416-159 (.723) in its 38th-season inside Bramlage Coliseum, including a 146-51 (.741) record under Mittie. The Wildcats are 241-32 (.883) in non-conference games in Bramlage including an 87-11 (.888) mark during Mittie's time at K-State.
- The Wildcats are 170-57 (.749) in games played in the month of November. Under head coach Jeff Mittie, K-State is 56-14 (.800) 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 second time this lineup has started together this season. This was the 80th career start for Heal and her sixth at K-State. This was the sixth career start for Harrod. This was the fifth career start for Sides. This was the fourth career start for Garcia. Speiser made her second career start.
- The Wildcats held a 35-28 lead at halftime on Tuesday. Under Mittie, K-State is 179-21 (.895) when leading at halftime, including a 3-0 mark this season.
- The Wildcats registered three quarters (second, third and fourth) with 20 or more points on Tuesday. Since the start of the quarter system in 2015-16, K-State is 163-67 (.709) when scoring 20 or more points in any quarter in a game. K-State has 11 quarters this season with 20 or more points scored.
- K-State had the edge in bench scoring, 28-12. The Wildcats have received 20 or more points from its bench in all six games this season.
- The Wildcats pulled in 50 rebounds, which are the most for K-State since pulling in 51 against Milwaukee on Nov. 20, 2024.
- K-State's 40 defensive rebounds are the most for K-State since Nov. 18, 2024, when K-State pulled down 42 defensive rebounds against Little Rock.
PLAYER NOTES
- Speiser reached double figures in points for the third time in her career.
- Speiser connected on two field goals from long range. This was her second career game with two or more conversions from distance.
- Speiser pulled in 10 rebounds on Tuesday. This was her third game this season with five or more rebounds and her second with 10 or more.
- Heal tallied 11 points. She owns 77 career games in double figures, including three this season.
- Heal connected on two 3-pointers on Tuesday. This was her 24th career game with two or more connections from long range.
- Heal grabbed nine rebounds against Troy. This was her third game this season and the 32nd of her career with five or more rebounds.
- Harrod tied her career-high in points and it was her third game this season in double figures.
- Taryn Sides hauled in nine rebounds on Tuesday. This was her 20th career game with five or more rebounds and her fourth this season.
- Sides dished out six assists on Tuesday night, her third game this season with five or more assists. In her career, Sides has 18 career games with five or more assists. With her assist total on Tuesday, Sides improved her career assist total to 216.
- Garcia recorded her third career game with five or more assists.
- With her 1-of-1 effort from the foul line on Tuesday, Garcia has now made 17 consecutive free throws to begin her career.
FROM THE HEAD COACH
K-State Head Coach Jeff Mittie
On the biggest difference between the first and second half…
"I think throwing it to our team helped. There's a lot of chaos in that first half. I think there's no doubt that we're a tired team right now. We've played a lot of games early here. We've played a lot of games. There has not been a lot of practice time, mental fatigue, and I think unfortunately for us, you play a team like Troy that's got a chaos element to their defensive scheme, and you better be sound. You better be fundamentally sound. And I thought particularly, I thought our guards looked tired. I thought Gina (Garcia) looked tired, and she's played a lot of stressful minutes, right? And a lot of physical minutes. So proud of our group for fighting through it. But the obvious answer is that we threw it to us a lot more in the second half than we did the first half."
On Nastja Claessens having played in Lithuania on Sunday and then here tonight…
"I mean, she's in shape, she's young. I don't know what time she got in, maybe 2:30 or 3:00 last night, back to campus here. She never said a word. She was up grabbing some food, I think, around 10:00, 10:30 this morning, and ready to go. And I know she's tired. She needs to take tomorrow off and sleep in. But competitor, the good thing is, it's not like she was away for a week with an injury. She was playing basketball. It's not like she had to get back into that part of it. But, you could see the difference she makes for us, particularly at the defensive end of the floor, because we're able to put her on a problem, and if we have another problem, we can move her to that one, because she's such a versatile defender. And you know that's important for us to be able to do."
On what the team did best defensively…
"I'll start with (Jordan) Speiser. I thought she was physical down low with the center. I think she's continuing to improve defensively. I felt like we guarded the straight line drive better tonight. It did not feel like they were downhill as much as we've seen, some teams get downhill against us. Really defended the three well early in this game. Now they really got hot late and knocked some threes down. But I thought we had a pretty good awareness there. So I think we were battling. I didn't ever question that we were battling. It just looked to me like you could see the physical fatigue and you could see the mental fatigue, but I know they wanted to come out on the right side. This has been a tough week for us. I'll just go back to really pleased that we were able to battle, not play great, but play well enough, and have some balance to that, because I think everybody did some good things."
On the scoring run in the third and fourth quarter…
"I felt like in that stretch we probably played together as well as any time of the game. I didn't really feel like the game ever had any rhythm to it. So many turnovers, a lot of chaos, we couldn't play well enough to get any rhythm. That part of the game felt like it had some rhythm to it. Felt like the right play was being made more often than not. And while it was a chaos game. You saw (Aniya) Foy do some really good things. I saw Brandie (Harod), I think, slow down some at the rim and finish better than she has. Speiser, like I mentioned, her rebounding has continued to really, really improve. So we're seeing some areas, particularly from our young group that's just getting better and better."
On how nice it will be to have some time to focus on the team and not the next opponent…
"Yeah, it's been really a challenge to find that practice, as we talked even last week. It's just different with a really veteran team than it is with a younger team. You want to have more practice time. You want to continue to build good habits. Hey, look, I'd like to sleep past 5 a.m., one day this week. I prefer to see 6:00 on an off day. I think it'll be nice just to have the win. I'd much rather correct things after a win. I think our group will be excited about that. I'll be excited to go back on film and actually maybe evaluate some things, as opposed to going forward and looking at an opponent. It'll be nice tonight, when I get home, grab some food. I can, instead of going to the next opponent already, I can at least go back and maybe help our team get better. Because I think that, as I've said numerous times, this is a team that we can see a lot of growth from."
FROM THE FLOOR
K-State Junior Forward Nastja Claessens
On how crazy the past couple of days have been…
"I'm running on five hours of sleep right now, so I'm a little tired, but it's okay. I'm happy with the win. That's what matters, and I get to sleep after this."
On how soon she was able to get to Manhattan after playing a game in Lithuania…
"I left Monday morning, I was supposed to fly out at 9 a.m., but then my flight got canceled. It was a whole thing. And I got here in Manhattan at 2 a.m. this morning."
On if her tiredness wore off as the game went on…
"Yeah, at first you always have to get through the first fatigue. But after that, you play a game, you're concentrated on winning, and you're not thinking about you being tired or your body being tired. You're just pushing through."
On if she noticed anything new about the team when she got back…
"The past two games we had tough losses, and I think we came back stronger. We had a team talk, and we talked about the values of our team, and I think everybody thought about it pretty seriously. Mentally, we came back stronger, and you could see it on the court today. We fought for every ball, we got the win, and it feels great."
K-State Freshman Guard Brandie Harrod
On the biggest change at halftime…
"Just focusing on finishing and no turnovers. That was really the main thing we talked about in the locker room, just playing as a team."
On where her game has grown throughout the first 5 games…
"Just focusing on helping out my teammates, getting the open shots that I can get, and being a great teammate."
On how it feels to get a win after two tough losses…
"It feels amazing. We've been working in practice these past few days, this long stretch of games, we've been very tired, but getting this one tonight and then having an off day tomorrow will be really good."
On Jordan Speiser…
"She's able to space the floor the bigs, and we're able to get more shots. And even if we don't get our shot, we can just pass it out to her. She can hit shots, and she's able to facilitate as well."
On holding Troy to 59 points…
"Probably being in the gap so they don't have any driving lanes, and then boxing out as well. Even though today wasn't our best boxing out or getting rebounds day, we've been working on that a lot, and getting our gaps as well."
UP NEXT
K-State will play its next five games away from the Little Apple, as the Wildcats travel to Wisconsin to face Green Bay on Saturday at 1 p.m.
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 (4-2) was paced by freshman guard Jordan Speiser with her second double-double, as she tallied 13 points and 10 rebounds.
Joining Speiser in double figures were freshman guard Brandie Harrod with 12 points and four rebounds, while senior guard Tess Heal added 11 points and nine rebounds.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Wildcats shot 33.3 percent (12-of-36) from the field in the opening half, but were perfect from the foul line (9-of-9) to hold a 35-28 lead at halftime. Defensively, K-State held Troy (3-1) to a 25.0 percent (11-of-44) effort from the floor.
- K-State strung together a 16-2 run midway through the third quarter to build a 57-38 lead with 1:10 remaining in the frame. Five different Wildcats scored during the run, highlighted by five points from freshman guard Gina Garcia. The product of Barcelona, Spain, ended the night with eight points and five assists.
- The Wildcats would win the third quarter, 24-13, and hold a 59-41 lead entering the final stanza. K-State shot 47.4 percent (9-of-19) from the floor in the third.
- K-State had its best shooting percentage of the night in the fourth quarter, tabulating a 52.9 percent (9-of-17) performance from the field. The Wildcats made four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, equaling their makes from the first three quarters.
- For the night, the Wildcats shot 41.7 percent (30-of-72) performance from the field and tallied an 86.7 percent (13-of-15) effort from the foul line.
- Defensively, K-State held Troy to a 26.5 percent (22-of-83) effort from the field. This was the second-lowest shooting percentage by a K-State opponent this season (25.5 percent; Omaha, Nov. 3).
- The teams combined for 105 rebounds in the game, as Troy held the slight edge, 55-50.
QUICK FACTS
- This was the first meeting in the series between K-State and Troy. The Wildcats are 11-8 (.579) against current members of the Sun Belt.
- The Wildcats are 8-1 against schools from the state of Alabama.
- K-State head coach Jeff Mittie owns a career record of 676-380 (.640), including a mark of 222-145 (.605).
- K-State is 416-159 (.723) in its 38th-season inside Bramlage Coliseum, including a 146-51 (.741) record under Mittie. The Wildcats are 241-32 (.883) in non-conference games in Bramlage including an 87-11 (.888) mark during Mittie's time at K-State.
- The Wildcats are 170-57 (.749) in games played in the month of November. Under head coach Jeff Mittie, K-State is 56-14 (.800) 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 second time this lineup has started together this season. This was the 80th career start for Heal and her sixth at K-State. This was the sixth career start for Harrod. This was the fifth career start for Sides. This was the fourth career start for Garcia. Speiser made her second career start.
- The Wildcats held a 35-28 lead at halftime on Tuesday. Under Mittie, K-State is 179-21 (.895) when leading at halftime, including a 3-0 mark this season.
- The Wildcats registered three quarters (second, third and fourth) with 20 or more points on Tuesday. Since the start of the quarter system in 2015-16, K-State is 163-67 (.709) when scoring 20 or more points in any quarter in a game. K-State has 11 quarters this season with 20 or more points scored.
- K-State had the edge in bench scoring, 28-12. The Wildcats have received 20 or more points from its bench in all six games this season.
- The Wildcats pulled in 50 rebounds, which are the most for K-State since pulling in 51 against Milwaukee on Nov. 20, 2024.
- K-State's 40 defensive rebounds are the most for K-State since Nov. 18, 2024, when K-State pulled down 42 defensive rebounds against Little Rock.
PLAYER NOTES
- Speiser reached double figures in points for the third time in her career.
- Speiser connected on two field goals from long range. This was her second career game with two or more conversions from distance.
- Speiser pulled in 10 rebounds on Tuesday. This was her third game this season with five or more rebounds and her second with 10 or more.
- Heal tallied 11 points. She owns 77 career games in double figures, including three this season.
- Heal connected on two 3-pointers on Tuesday. This was her 24th career game with two or more connections from long range.
- Heal grabbed nine rebounds against Troy. This was her third game this season and the 32nd of her career with five or more rebounds.
- Harrod tied her career-high in points and it was her third game this season in double figures.
- Taryn Sides hauled in nine rebounds on Tuesday. This was her 20th career game with five or more rebounds and her fourth this season.
- Sides dished out six assists on Tuesday night, her third game this season with five or more assists. In her career, Sides has 18 career games with five or more assists. With her assist total on Tuesday, Sides improved her career assist total to 216.
- Garcia recorded her third career game with five or more assists.
- With her 1-of-1 effort from the foul line on Tuesday, Garcia has now made 17 consecutive free throws to begin her career.
FROM THE HEAD COACH
K-State Head Coach Jeff Mittie
On the biggest difference between the first and second half…
"I think throwing it to our team helped. There's a lot of chaos in that first half. I think there's no doubt that we're a tired team right now. We've played a lot of games early here. We've played a lot of games. There has not been a lot of practice time, mental fatigue, and I think unfortunately for us, you play a team like Troy that's got a chaos element to their defensive scheme, and you better be sound. You better be fundamentally sound. And I thought particularly, I thought our guards looked tired. I thought Gina (Garcia) looked tired, and she's played a lot of stressful minutes, right? And a lot of physical minutes. So proud of our group for fighting through it. But the obvious answer is that we threw it to us a lot more in the second half than we did the first half."
On Nastja Claessens having played in Lithuania on Sunday and then here tonight…
"I mean, she's in shape, she's young. I don't know what time she got in, maybe 2:30 or 3:00 last night, back to campus here. She never said a word. She was up grabbing some food, I think, around 10:00, 10:30 this morning, and ready to go. And I know she's tired. She needs to take tomorrow off and sleep in. But competitor, the good thing is, it's not like she was away for a week with an injury. She was playing basketball. It's not like she had to get back into that part of it. But, you could see the difference she makes for us, particularly at the defensive end of the floor, because we're able to put her on a problem, and if we have another problem, we can move her to that one, because she's such a versatile defender. And you know that's important for us to be able to do."
On what the team did best defensively…
"I'll start with (Jordan) Speiser. I thought she was physical down low with the center. I think she's continuing to improve defensively. I felt like we guarded the straight line drive better tonight. It did not feel like they were downhill as much as we've seen, some teams get downhill against us. Really defended the three well early in this game. Now they really got hot late and knocked some threes down. But I thought we had a pretty good awareness there. So I think we were battling. I didn't ever question that we were battling. It just looked to me like you could see the physical fatigue and you could see the mental fatigue, but I know they wanted to come out on the right side. This has been a tough week for us. I'll just go back to really pleased that we were able to battle, not play great, but play well enough, and have some balance to that, because I think everybody did some good things."
On the scoring run in the third and fourth quarter…
"I felt like in that stretch we probably played together as well as any time of the game. I didn't really feel like the game ever had any rhythm to it. So many turnovers, a lot of chaos, we couldn't play well enough to get any rhythm. That part of the game felt like it had some rhythm to it. Felt like the right play was being made more often than not. And while it was a chaos game. You saw (Aniya) Foy do some really good things. I saw Brandie (Harod), I think, slow down some at the rim and finish better than she has. Speiser, like I mentioned, her rebounding has continued to really, really improve. So we're seeing some areas, particularly from our young group that's just getting better and better."
On how nice it will be to have some time to focus on the team and not the next opponent…
"Yeah, it's been really a challenge to find that practice, as we talked even last week. It's just different with a really veteran team than it is with a younger team. You want to have more practice time. You want to continue to build good habits. Hey, look, I'd like to sleep past 5 a.m., one day this week. I prefer to see 6:00 on an off day. I think it'll be nice just to have the win. I'd much rather correct things after a win. I think our group will be excited about that. I'll be excited to go back on film and actually maybe evaluate some things, as opposed to going forward and looking at an opponent. It'll be nice tonight, when I get home, grab some food. I can, instead of going to the next opponent already, I can at least go back and maybe help our team get better. Because I think that, as I've said numerous times, this is a team that we can see a lot of growth from."
FROM THE FLOOR
K-State Junior Forward Nastja Claessens
On how crazy the past couple of days have been…
"I'm running on five hours of sleep right now, so I'm a little tired, but it's okay. I'm happy with the win. That's what matters, and I get to sleep after this."
On how soon she was able to get to Manhattan after playing a game in Lithuania…
"I left Monday morning, I was supposed to fly out at 9 a.m., but then my flight got canceled. It was a whole thing. And I got here in Manhattan at 2 a.m. this morning."
On if her tiredness wore off as the game went on…
"Yeah, at first you always have to get through the first fatigue. But after that, you play a game, you're concentrated on winning, and you're not thinking about you being tired or your body being tired. You're just pushing through."
On if she noticed anything new about the team when she got back…
"The past two games we had tough losses, and I think we came back stronger. We had a team talk, and we talked about the values of our team, and I think everybody thought about it pretty seriously. Mentally, we came back stronger, and you could see it on the court today. We fought for every ball, we got the win, and it feels great."
K-State Freshman Guard Brandie Harrod
On the biggest change at halftime…
"Just focusing on finishing and no turnovers. That was really the main thing we talked about in the locker room, just playing as a team."
On where her game has grown throughout the first 5 games…
"Just focusing on helping out my teammates, getting the open shots that I can get, and being a great teammate."
On how it feels to get a win after two tough losses…
"It feels amazing. We've been working in practice these past few days, this long stretch of games, we've been very tired, but getting this one tonight and then having an off day tomorrow will be really good."
On Jordan Speiser…
"She's able to space the floor the bigs, and we're able to get more shots. And even if we don't get our shot, we can just pass it out to her. She can hit shots, and she's able to facilitate as well."
On holding Troy to 59 points…
"Probably being in the gap so they don't have any driving lanes, and then boxing out as well. Even though today wasn't our best boxing out or getting rebounds day, we've been working on that a lot, and getting our gaps as well."
UP NEXT
K-State will play its next five games away from the Little Apple, as the Wildcats travel to Wisconsin to face Green Bay on Saturday at 1 p.m.
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.
Team Stats
TROY
KState
FG%
.265
.417
3FG%
.194
.250
FT%
.643
.867
RB
55
50
TO
21
18
STL
10
10
Game Leaders
Pts
13
FGM
3
3FGM
2
FTM
5
Pts
12
FGM
6
3FGM
0
FTM
0
Pts
9
FGM
4
3FGM
1
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
G
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballG
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