K-State beats Drake

Basketball

Kansas State advanced in the NCAA Tournament yesterday by beating Drake 67-54. Our own JT VanGilder has all the details in his recap: No Place Like Home.

On a day when the Wildcats had the full support of a home crowd, it was the team’s defensive prowess that stood out. The Bulldogs had come into the game averaging 83 points and were held to a season low by the Wildcats.

Despite drawing double teams for much of the game, Breanna Lewis used her size to good advantage on offense and defense, scoring 23 points and tallying 11 rebounds.

Kansas State takes on Stanford in the next round. The Cardinal struggled somewhat to put away New Mexico State, and the Wildcats are hoping string strong support from the home crowd will help in the next game too.

In other roundball news, Brad Underwood, lately of Oklahoma State, was announced as the new head coach at Illinois yesterday. Considering that at least two former Illinois coaches have made their way to the state of Kansas...take from that what you will. Bill Self expressed some shock, and the salary numbers help tell the story of why Underwood might have left.

Baseball

The BatCats capped off an exciting comeback with a 10th inning walk-off triple from Quintin Crandall to beat Iowa 5-4 at Tointon Family Stadium yesterday.

It was also a pretty good pitching day for Kansas State. Starter Parker Rigler tossed six innings before giving up two runs. Reliever Bryce Ward pitched a perfect seventh inning in only his second stint at the mound. But the win belonged to Nick Jones who pitched perfect ninth and tenth innings and helped seal the victory.

The series against Iowa wraps up today in Manhattan. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.

Tennis

The ‘Cats lost their third straight match, falling 5-2 against 13-3 SMU. Kansas State is now 8-8 and will stay in Texas to face UT Arlington today.