K-State women’s basketball started its 35th season under head coach Jeff Mittie on Monday, defeating Wichita State 61-41. Freshman forward Shaila Nde starred in her first game as a Wildcat with 12 points and nine rebounds. Senior guard Taryn Sides led the team in scoring with 15 points and added six rebounds.
Forcing a Wichita State turnover on the first possession, K-State’s defense made its presence known early and Nde followed it with her first made collegiate basket. On the next offensive possession, senior forward Nastja Classens missed a shot, then got her own rebound and made the putback to put K-State up 4-0 early.
Scoring was few and far between, as the Wildcats led 9-2 going into the first-quarter TV timeout. K-State’s defense stifled the Shockers, staying up in their faces and double-teaming Wichita State players whenever they entered the paint to force inaccurate passes and shots.
The drought started soon after, as a lid started forming on the basket. Wichita State made a 3-pointer to make it 9-5 with 4:26 remaining in the quarter before shots stopped falling. Points only came from free throws for the rest of the quarter, as both teams went a combined 0-for-14 on field goal attempts to end the first.
Throughout the final four and a half minutes, K-State secured 4 points from the charity stripe to lead 13-5 at the end of the first quarter.
“I think the most important thing is following our scout and being disciplined in that area,” Sides said. “We knew we wanted to play off of them [Wichita State] a little and make them shoot it and not give them easy layups and jumpers. So I think we did a good job of that for the most part today.”
Wichita State’s first field goal in over five and a half minutes came from the stripe, making it 13-7. Sophomore guard Gina Garcia broke the streak for the Wildcats, drilling a 3-pointer for K-State’s first made field goal in nearly 10 minutes. The ‘Cats caught fire after, making two more shots to bring the Wildcat lead to 21-12.
The Shockers responded with a run of their own, bringing the game to 21-19 after a 7-0 run. Multiple threes propelled Wichita State to their closest deficit since 2-0 with 3:17 to go in the half.
K-State then answered with another run, going on a 7-0 stretch to end the half. With that run, the Wildcats took a 28-19 lead into halftime. K-State forced eight Shockers turnovers in the first half, producing more Wildcat baskets and leading to additional scoring runs.
K-State’s momentum from the 7-0 run to end the half carried into the second half, with Sides and Garcia hitting threes to push the lead to 34-19. Wichita State responded with a three of their own to end the Wildcats’ 13-0 run. But the damage was already done, as K-State kept a comfortable 12-15-point lead for most of the third quarter.
That lead didn’t come without challenges, though, as the Wildcats started making costly turnovers after their run. Soon after, sophomore guard Téa Cléante made a layup to make it 38-24, but K-State went on a scoring drought and committed four turnovers in four minutes. Despite the Wildcats’ offensive troubles, their defense stayed stout, forcing tough shots from the Shockers and keeping them from making a sizeable comeback.
A Wichita State player fouled junior forward Cristina Osazuwa on a 2-point shot and made one of the two free throws, putting the ‘Cats up 39-26 with 2:55 left in the third quarter. Wichita State started to find their offense and began making a few shots while also getting to the free-throw line.
K-State couldn’t respond, as a shot clock violation compounded the lack of offensive production late in the third quarter. The Shockers went on a 5-0 run to end the quarter, cutting the deficit to single digits with a 39-31 lead. K-State didn’t score in the final 2:55 and hadn’t made a shot since the five-minute mark of the third quarter.
Wasting no time, Nde started the fourth quarter with a three, putting her at 12 points in her collegiate debut and snapping the Wildcat scoring drought. Nde finished with nine rebounds, the most in a freshman debut since Peyton Williams had 12 in 2016. She was also K-State’s second-leading scorer with 12 points.
This helped the Wildcats gain some momentum defensively as well, holding Wichita State to one basket in the first eight minutes of the fourth quarter. K-State turned defense into offense, scoring multiple times off Shocker turnovers to take a 55-34 lead with 2:19 to go.
Wichita State finally broke through offensively, scoring their second basket of the quarter with just under two minutes left to make it 57-38. K-State made more baskets before the Shockers’ next score, then dribbled the ball out to finish the game, winning 61-41. K-State’s defense dominated, holding Wichita State to 10 points or less in two quarters and forcing 19 turnovers.
“I think our group got in a better rhythm defensively,” Mittie said. “I thought we defended the high-low better in the second half than we did in the first half, and then we felt all along if we kept them off the free-throw line, we would have some success defensively.”
K-State continues their home stretch to start the season, facing Southern Indiana at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 5 on ESPN+.
