No. 14 Kansas State women’s basketball came off a large 30-point loss on Saturday against Oklahoma State but responded with an even larger win on Wednesday, blazing to a 90-53 win against Cincinnati to maintain their top spot in the Big 12 standings.
Leading K-State (23-3, 11-2) as she has seemingly all year was All-American candidate Serena Sundell. The senior scored 21 points and added 10 more assists to record her team-leading seventh double-double of the season.
Helping Sundell with the scoring were forward Temira Poindexter and guard Taryn Sides. Both did their work mostly from the outside as Poindexter knocked down three triples and recorded 18 points.
Sides, one of the nation’s best 3-point shooters, was 4-5 from three and had 17 points. Impressively, Sides, at 5-foot-7, also had 12 rebounds in the game which was her career-high and first double-double.
The offensive outburst was improved from a poor performance against Oklahoma State but the defensive effort against Cincinnati may be even more encouraging. The ‘Cats defense has been superb all year and was back in full force again. The Wildcats held Cincinnati to 28% from the field.
The first quarter started out a little slow for K-State as it didn’t score for the first three minutes. But when the Wildcats got on the board, they started a 14-3 run to help build a 22-16 first-quarter lead.
In the second frame, the Wildcats started to blow the game open and did it with their defense. K-State held Cincinnati to just nine second-quarter points while the Wildcats scored 20 and led at half 42-25.
In the third quarter, K-State came out on fire making seven of its first 10 shots and extending the lead up to 25. The Wildcats continued to put their foot on the gas and wanted to put the Bearcats away early which they did.
The fourth quarter was more of the same offensive output by K-State as they scored 24 points in the frame even with the backups and reserves seeing a lot of time.
K-State in the contest shot 51% from the field and 36% from three. The Wildcats continued to share the ball at a high rate as they have all season as they had 28 assists on those 33 made field goals.
K-State will return home to face UCF, hosting its annual National Girls and Women in Sports game. Tip-off is on Saturday at 4 p.m.
