Two games, two wins

Basketball

The men’s basketball team beat Oklahoma yesterday 75-64. After a dominant first-half performance, the Wildcats let the Sooners hang around in the second half to make the score closer than the actual game.

As Jon Morse notes in his recap, Kansas State owned the first half, but seemed to lose momentum in the second half, allowing Oklahoma to rally to cut the lead to just seven. But sanity ultimately prevailed, and the Wildcats held on for the victory.

The key to victory for the Wildcats was starting strong and finishing strong (Ken Corbitt, Topeka Capital-Journal). Kansas State was aggressive in the first half, determined to show that the strong game against Kansas was no fluke (Kevin Haskin, Capital-Journal). The Wildcats made five of their first six shots to take a commanding 14-3 lead right out of the gate. In the second half, the Sooners started strong and the Wildcats nearly drowned in a flood of sudden turnovers, six in less than eight minutes of the half. But the team rallied and Barry Brown led the charge to reverse the trend for Kansas State and seal the victories.

Kansas State found strength in versatility last night. All five starters were in double digits, led by Wesley Iwundu with 16 points. Brown added 14, while Kamau Stokes and Dean Wade both finished with 13 and 12 points respectively, D.J. Johnson had 10 to round out the set (Kellis Robinett, Wichita Eagle).

The women’s team, currently #25, beat Texas Tech 68-54 yesterday, thanks to contributions from the bench.

Although the Wildcats began the game strong, Texas Tech kept coming back and narrowing the gap, and with the starting lineup struggling, Eternati Willock and Kaylee Page came off the bench to spark the team and seal the win. Willock (13 points, 8 rebounds) and Page contributed (10 points, 6 reobounds) 23 of the Wildcats’ 28 points off the bench (Corbitt, Capital-Journal).

Starters Breanna Lewis and Kindred Wesemann struggled last night, but Lewis managed 10 points to go with 10 rebounds, her fourth double-double of the season. Wesemann added 11 points, while freshman Peyton Williams had her first double-digit Big 12 game of the season with 10 points and five rebounds.

Track

The Wildcats had a successful outing at the Bill Easton Classic in Lawrence this weekend, winning 10 events. The men’s and women’s teams finished fourth at the meet, with 121 and 120 points respectively. The meet was won by Barton County CC (men) and Kansas (women).

Senior Janeé Kassanavoid took the top spot in women’s weight throw with a personal best attempt of 20.84m. She’s now third on the all-time list at Kansas State. Freshman teammate Helene Ingvaldsen finished second with a mark of 18.47m. In the men’s weight throw, it was clean sweep for the Wildcats with Brady Grunder (19.78m), Mitchell Dixon (19.24m), and Kyle Smith (18.79m) taking the top three spots.

Brett Neely won the shot put event with a mark of 17.90m, and Morgan Coffman had a personal best leap of 1.80m in the high jump to take first place, while teammate Nina Schultz finished in third place with a jump of 1.72m.

The Wildcats also took first place in the men’s and women’s 800m races. Travis Hodge won his first collegiate event with a personal best time of 1:54:00, while Marija Stambolic won her race with a time of 2:17.26 in her first race of the season.

Erin Lee finished first in the 1000m race, almost breaking into the school’s Top 10 in the process. Lukas Koch took first in the men’s mile event while Morgan Wedekind finished second in the women’s event.

Complete results are available HERE.