Kansas State women rally past Washington State in opening round of NCAA Tournament
The Kansas State women’s basketball team didn’t let an ugly first half prevent it from advancing past Washington State with a 50-40 victory in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, North Carolina.
K-State only scored five points in the first quarter and trailed by as many as nine as the Cougars methodically marched to a 24-17 halftime lead. Jeff Mittie’s team was shooting 21% of the field and 10% from three-point range. The No. 9 seed Wildcats looked overmatched against the No. 8 seed Cougars.
But it didn’t matter.
The Wildcats made some halftime adjustments, the game began to turn their way and Washington State had no answers. They made this come-from-behind victory look easy.
“I was proud of our group,” Mittie said afterward. “Obviously, when we got a lot of players struggling, we just kind of stayed the course. We struggled getting the ball to (Ayoka) Lee, she struggled finishing early in this game. But we kept our focus and when the shots weren’t falling we dug deep today.”
The Wildcats began to gain momentum when freshman guard Serena Sundell drained a three-point early in the third quarter. Up until then, it seemed like there was a lid on the basket preventing any outside shot by K-State from going in. But seeing her shot go through the net gave the entire team confidence.
Brylee Glenn hit a three-pointer on K-State’s next possession and the Wildcats surged to a 35-33 lead by the end of the third quarter.
Those shots forced Washington State to spread out on defense, allowing K-State star center Ayoka Lee to get free for a game-high 20 points and 15 rebounds.
On the flip side, Charlisse Leger-Walker finished with half of the Cougars’ 40 points.
Everything changed at halftime.
“We knew we were still in it,” Lee said. “We knew it was anyone’s game. We have been in so many different game situations this year. I don’t think there was any question of whether we were still in it or not. Our mentality was like, we just have to keep sticking to our game plan.”
That was easy to do once things started going right.
Glenn gave Lee a lot of help by scoring 14 points. Sundell also played a key role defensively, even though she only scored five points in 39 minutes.
“Even if we were down we also maintained a positive attitude,” Glenn said. “When coach walked in, we did clap. And we did celebrate the little things that we had done. We tried not to dwell on what we were doing bad, but stay confident and maintain that composure so that coming into the third quarter that we do what needs to be done.”
From here, the Wildcats will likely face an even more difficult challenge in the second round. No. 1 seed North Carolina State easily beat No. 16 seed Longwood 96-68 in a first round game and will host K-State in a true home game at 3 p.m. Central time Monday (ESPN).
K-State (20-12) lost to North Carolina State 90-69 earlier this season.
Still, the Wildcats will take their chances if they can pick up where they left off against the Cougars, and continue to play defense the way they did all afternoon Saturday.
“I think that’s something that this team has learned, not to tie their defense to their offense,” Mittie said. “And I think we’re moving on because of that. We obviously don’t win this game because we were sharp offensively.”
This story was originally published March 19, 2022 at 12:55 PM with the headline "Kansas State women rally past Washington State in opening round of NCAA Tournament."