Turnovers doom K-State women in lopsided NCAA Tournament loss to Michigan

The Kansas State women’s basketball team’s season came to an end in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday, as the ninth-seeded Wildcats lost to No. 8 seed Michigan 84-54.

The loss marks the first time since 2011 that the Wildcats lost in the first round of the postseason. Under Jeff Mittie, they had advanced out of the opening round in the 2015 and 2018 WNIT and in the 2016 and 2017 NCAA Tournaments.

The 30-point loss was K-State’s second-worst in the NCAA Tournament, trailing only a 72-26 loss to top-seeded Connecticut in the 2012 second round.

“Most of our plays were individual plays, really struggled to play in sync with each other and I think that’s a credit to Michigan’s defense,” Mittie said after the game.

Kansas State shot 36 percent from the floor while Michigan made 56 percent of its shots. The Wildcats had two separate stretches where they missed at least five consecutive shots while Michigan missed no more than three straight shots at any point in the game.

The Wildcats trailed by seven at the end of the first quarter and by 15 at halftime. The Wolverines’ 17-0 run in the second quarter opened up a double-digit lead that would grow.

Kansas State coughed the ball up four times during that run. Michigan scored 26 points off Kansas State’s 17 turnovers, which is the third-most an opponent has scored off of Kansas State’s turnovers all season.

Mittle and his players credited Michigan’s press, which often put the Wolverines in good position for fast-break points.

“We face teams in the Big 12 that press, but I think it was a different kind of caliber of press,” K-State senior guard Kayla Goth said. “They’re obviously incredibly aggressive out of it and we found ourselves right around the half-court line a lot, which is not a good place to be.”

Michigan also dominated Kansas State in the paint, outrebounding the Wildcats 50-19 and outscoring them 52-26 down low.

“This was a horrific performance by us down low, there’s no way to sugarcoat this,” Mittle said.

Christianna Carr led Kansas State in scoring for the third time this season, scoring 21 points off 8-of-20 shooting.

Carr helped the Wildcats get back into the game after a 12-0 Michigan run in the first quarter, as a pair of threes from her and Rachel Ranke brought Kansas State within three points of Michigan midway in the second quarter.

“Being a shooter, you want to be able to find the best shots possible within our offense, and we kind of noticed that things weren’t really working inside,” Carr said.

Michigan would call timeout after Ranke’s second three of the quarter, and then the Wolverines went on the 17-0 run that pushed their lead to 20.

Michigan, which led by as many as 37 points in the second half, will face No. 1 seed Louisville in a second-round matchup on Sunday.

Kansas State showed no signs of a comeback after halftime, shooting 25 percent from the floor while Michigan made 67 percent of its shots.

Mittie checked his team’s leaders out of the game before the final buzzer, including Goth, who played her final game in a Kansas State uniform.

“I’ve had a remarkable four years here and I wouldn’t change it for anything, I don’t have any regrets,” Goth said. “It’s tough, you put on this jersey for four years and you’ve been playing this game your whole life, now you got to hang it up at some point.”

This story was originally published March 22, 2019 at 4:53 PM with the headline "Turnovers doom K-State women in lopsided NCAA Tournament loss to Michigan."