K-State Fends Off Pesky Southern Indiana - Kansas State University Athletics

Thursday, November 5

Manhattan, Kan.

6:30 p.m.

Kansas State University

2-0,0-0Big 12

Southern Indiana

0-2,0-0OVC

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Southern Ind.	17	10	10	10	47
Kansas St.	17	12	21	11	61

K-State Women’s Basketball vs Southern Indiana Sunday, November 5, 2026, Bramlage Coliseum, Manhattan, KS Final Score: KSU 61, USI 47

Photo by: K-State Photo

K-State Women’s Basketball vs Southern Indiana Sunday, November 5, 2026, Bramlage Coliseum, Manhattan, KS Final Score: KSU 59, USI 47

Photo by: K-State Photo

Nov 05, 2026 | Women's Basketball

Box Score Postgame Highlights K-State Head Coach Jeff Mittie Press Conference K-State Player Press Conference Box Score (pdf)Photo Gallery

MANHATTAN, Kansas – K-State used a big second half to hold back the upset-minded Southern Indiana on Thursday night with a 61-47 win at Bramlage Coliseum.

K-State (2-0) was led by senior guard Taryn Sides with 16 points and dished out a team-high five assists.

Joining Sides in double figures were junior center Tzoana Tampakou and senior forward Nastja Claessens. Tampakou registered a perfect night from the field, 7-of-7, to register 15 points and six rebounds. Tampakou is the 10the player since the 2000-01 season to finish perfect from the field on seven or more made field goals.

Claessens displayed an all-round game with 12 points, five rebounds, three steals, a career-high three blocks and two assists.

Freshman forward Shaila Nde tallied seven points, 11 rebounds and three assists. Her 11 rebounds are the most by a K-State freshman since Jaelyn Glenn pulled in 11 against Oklahoma on Jan. 23, 2022.

HOW IT HAPPENED
- The opening half featured five lead changes and two ties, as neither team held a lead larger than four points.
- K-State looked to breakaway from Southern Indiana (1-0), as the Wildcats used a 7-0 run to build a 26-22 lead following a Tampakou layup with 3:25 remaining. The Wildcats would register one field goal in the final 3:24 of the frame, as Nastja Claessens would bury a 3-pointer to help give K-State a 29-27 lead at halftime.
- A 6-0 burst to open the third quarter pushed the Wildcats into a 35-27 lead and forced the Screaming Eagles to call its second timeout of the night with 7:26 to play in the frame.
- The run opened with a nifty pass from Claessens to an open Nde for a layup and then Claessens completed a four-point play as she buried a three-pointer in front of the K-State bench and was fouled, calmly making the free throw with 8:34 left in the third stanza.
- Leading by seven, 39-32, Mikayla Parks buried a 3-pointer and was followed by a steal and layup from Claessens to send the Wildcats into a 12-point advantage, 44-32, and force Southern Indiana into using its third timeout of the game.
- A three-pointer with 10 seconds left by Sides gave the Wildcats a 50-37 lead entering the fourth quarter.
- The Screaming Eagles narrowed the game to 10, 53-43, with 5:28 remaining in the fourth, but Sides connected on her fourth 3-point field goal of the night to up the advantage back to 13, 56-43, with 5:01 left.
- A Tampakou layup with 1:01 to play ended any comeback hopes for Southern Indiana, as the margin increased to 14, 58-44.
- For the night, K-State shot 41.1 percent (23-of-56) from the floor. The Wildcats held Southern Indiana to 33.3 percent (18-of-54) shooting including 24.0 percent in the second half (6-of-25).

QUICK FACTS
- K-State head coach Jeff Mittie owns a career record of 693-396 (.636), including a mark of 239-161 (.598).
- K-State is 423-166 (.718) in its 39th-season inside Bramlage Coliseum, including a 153-58 (.725) record under Mittie.
- The Wildcats are 173-60 (.742) in games played in the month of November. Under head coach Jeff Mittie, K-State is 59-17 (.776) in games during the 11th month.

TEAM NOTES
- K-State's starting five consisted of guards Gina Garcia, and Taryn Sides, forwards Nastja Claessens and Shaila Nde and center Tzoana Tampakou. This was the second time this lineup has started together this season. This was the 38th career start for Sides. This was the 37th career start for Garcia. Claessens made her 35th career start. Nde and Tampakou made their second starts.
- The Wildcats held a 29-27 lead at halftime on Thursday. Under Mittie, K-State is 189-24 (.887) when leading at halftime.
- Since the start of the quarter-system in women's college basketball in the 2015-16 season, K-State is 179-77 (.699) when scoring 20 or more points in any quarter in a game. The Wildcats have two quarters this season with 20 or more points.
- K-State is 69-1 under Jeff Mittie when allowing 49 or fewer points in a game and are 155-18 when limiting foes to 60 or fewer points.

PLAYER NOTES
- Sides tallied 10 or more points for the 43rd time in her career. She has led K-State in scoring 17 times in her career. Her career point total stands at 929. She needs 71 points to become the 47th player in program history with 1,000 or more career points at K-State.
- Sides connected on four 3-point field goals. She has made four or more 3-point field goals in a game 15 times in her career. This was the 57th game of her career with two or more connections from long range. Sides ranks ninth in program history for career 3-point field goals made with 199.
- Sides dished out five assists on Thursday. With her total, she improved her career number to 333 and moved into 13th on the K-State career assists list. This was her 29th career game with five or more assists.
- Sides pocketed two steals on Thursday. This was her 34th career game with two or more steals.
- Claessens made two 3-point field goals on Thursday. This was her eighth career game and first this season with two or more 3-point field goals made.
- Claessens pocketed three steals. This was her 15th career game with two or more steals.
- Claessens rejected three shots. She set a new career-high with the effort and this was her third career game with two or more blocks.
- Shaila Nde registered her second game this season with five or more rebounds.

FROM THE HEAD COACH
K-State Head Coach Jeff Mittie
On the difference in playing zone defense…
"I think it's the hardest thing to compete against early in the year, particularly with where we're at in our development as a team. Any time a team switches defenses, particularly early in the year, it can give you problems, spacing issues. It can give you timing issues, and I was really proud of our group for kind of grinding their way through. When you move the ball really well, then you don't make open shots, and I really thought we had pretty good shots in that stretch. We just weren't making everything, but that has a lot to do with the switching defense. You're having to think way too hard to play the game. Hopefully, as we progress, that'll come a lot cleaner for us and we'll be able to play more relaxed and play better."

On the performance of Tzoana Tampakou…
"I think the obvious on the scoreboard is the points she scored, but from a coaching perspective, I think our staff is most pleased with the adjustments she made defensively, because she went up against pretty solid post players, pretty strong. They can also shoot the ball a little bit. I thought she really held her own down there and really played well. Particularly, the posts were coming off a game of 13 fouls, this was a much better performance."

On the four-game home stretch…
"Well, I don't know. Southern Indiana, I would say, is a really well-coached basketball team. Schematically, is going to give teams some fits. I think for us, it's just we have to play well to win, we just do. We don't have much margin for error. We've got to continue to grow, we've got to continue to play better. We saw a lot of things early in this game. We had wrong people taking the ball out of bounds against the press. We had coverage issues early in this game, but they got better as the game went on. We were more sound defensively as the game went on, so I think every opponent right now for us is going to be a challenge. The bigger thing is what are we going to do in practice? Because we have way more practice opportunities to improve than we do game opportunities. The games provide a different test, certainly, but we've got to come in Saturday and have a really good practice, and that's the challenge for our team, that's exactly what I just told them. We have to improve in this stretch because we know that we've got a lot of games. You even talk about the four in eight days, but it doesn't let up after that, right? We've got a lot of games after that, so we've got a lot of basketball here."

On the performance of Shaila Nde…
"Well, I think that Shaila has that overall game to impact it without scoring, and right now I think she's a perfect example of a player that's not comfortable right now, but because she just grinds it and just plays and competes, she's finding some success in every area, and we're asking a lot out of her. I mentioned this the other day, we're asking her to play three positions, and because of our short bench, she's having to do that. So I think she's doing very well. I thought Mikayla Parks gave us a lift off the bench defensively. I thought she settled us down some. Her numbers weren't necessarily, you know, she had some open ones, but I think what Mikayla does is allow Shaila to only play the four and the five. So we had a little small ball, but anyways, I think Shaila continues to grow every day."

On the performance of Taryn Sides…
"Yeah, I thought Gina [Garcia] was struggling a little bit, kind of finding gaps, and the switching defenses were kind of affecting her passing game. So I thought Taryn really played all over, she played the one, she played the two. You mentioned it, she was more of a floor general tonight. I think we've got the ability to move players around, particularly Taryn, Tea [Cleante] and Gina. But tonight, I thought Taryn played really solid."

FROM THE COURT
K-State Senior Forward Nastja Claessens
On what tonight's biggest challenge was…
"Coming into the game, we knew that we had to run at them because their defensive transition wasn't the best, and I think just trusting ourselves and keep playing together and keep fighting through it, and I think the result spoke for itself."

On how tough it is to adjust to different defenses…
"It's definitely a challenge, I would say. But on the other hand, it's also good for us to just play against different defenses because we're gonna face different teams who also play different styles. So it's a good exercise for us, but it's definitely a challenge. But I think we kind of try to adjust to it, and be good."

On how making the extra passes tonight helped…
"Yeah, I think that's our playing style. That's going to be our playing style this year. Playing together, going for that extra pass, I think it's really fun to play that way, and I think it's also fun to watch us play, just sharing the ball. So, I hope we can continue that moving forward."

On how they are able to adjust with many games and few practices….
"Well, like you said, we have to turn around really quick. It is the way it is. I mean, we can't do anything about it. We just got the win. We're happy with it. But we have to change our mind really quickly and just go to the next game and concentrate on and focus on that."

On how nice it is to play with Mikayla Parks…
"It's really nice. She comes on the court, I also want to say that she's like a great leader. She may have limited minutes, but she does so much for our team, and she means a lot to our team. When she comes on the court and can get those points, it's just really nice because she's a hard worker, and that pays off. It's nice."

K-State Junior Center Tzoana Tampakou
On her mindset through the first half…
"It was just like going with the flow and being there for my teammates and trying to give my best at every position, so I feel like it was more than teamwork, than personal, than individual. So I think we all contributed to that. "

On what she thinks of college basketball to international play…
"Both of the games are totally different from one another. I like it, but it's a challenge. You don't have really much time to think about it. You go to the next one, and of course there is a lot of physicality and the pace is much different here, but I think I enjoy it so far."

On how making the extra passes tonight helped…
"I think it was more teamwork and just the things that we've been working on, the practice, coming on the court, and just trusting each other, having each other's back, and we just keep playing."

On how these first two games have helped her adjust…
"Actually, it's good to have people on your team who have been through this, and they help you. Like we are from Europe, and we work on a different program and it's so much different here. So Nas [Nastja] being here before me, even in practice and the game, trying to point out some things that can help in the game and just trying to give my best for the team and being there."

UP NEXT
K-State continues its home stand on Sunday, as the Wildcats host UTRGV at 12 p.m. For tickets, call (800) 221-CATS or visit kstatesports.com/tickets.

Sunday's game will air on ESPN+, as Brian Smoller, Missy Heidrick and Laci Lister will have the call. The game 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.