No. 13 Kansas State women’s basketball finished up its busy week on the road at Texas A&M as power conference play didn’t slow down the hot ‘Cats as they dominated the Aggies 89-50.
K-State, moving to 11-1, played four total games in a span of a week dominating all of them. While some of them were against far inferior opponents, the near 40-point win over A&M capped off an astounding week.
K-State continued its trend of hot starts with a commanding 26-10 lead after the first quarter. Star Center Ayoka Lee picked up two early fouls, limiting her minutes.
“I think we played really well early and hit them early. And that’s what you’ve got to do on the road,” head coach Jeff Mittie said to K-State Athletics after earning his 200th win at K-State.
Lee only ended up playing 11 total minutes in the game with the big lead allowing K-State to rest her and gain good play off the bench from Kennedy Taylor and Imani Lester.
“That’s not how we want to play, but I do think that’s the difference in this team this year, is that we’re able to score the basketball without Lee better, and defensively, we’re able to kind of cover up those things better,” Mittie said.
The sophomore backcourt for the ‘Cats continued their good play as guard Taryn Sides poured in 19 points including going 5-7 from distance. Sides is typically the smallest player on the court but still led the team in rebounds with seven and dished out six assists, having one of the best games of her young career.
“When we moved the ball tonight, we were really hard to guard, and we had open shots. And Sides is one that she has that ability to knock down open shots,” Mittie said.
The other sophomore guard Zyanna Walker carried her part of the load as well scoring a new career high with 17 points, highlighting the future of the Wildcats with its young backcourt duo.
K-State ended up leading 46-25 at halftime and then opened up the third quarter with a 14-2 run to put the game away immediately.
“We’ve got a lot of veterans here, and they’re bought in on what we want to do. And I think they’re smart players,” Mittie said. “I think what I was most pleased about today was we wanted to make them jump shooters, and I think for the most part, we did that.”
K-State held the Aggies to just 31% from the field including forcing them to 18 turnovers for the game.
After getting the lead to over 30 points, K-State kept it at that mark and was able to cruise the rest of the way. The Wildcats shot 51% from the field and were 10-25 from three-point land.
K-State gets a well-needed and deserved break for finals before playing in the Bill Snyder Basketball Classic in St. Joesph, Missouri. They will take on Middle Tennessee on Saturday, Dec. 5 at 5 pm.
