WBB season ends with buzzer beater

Basketball

The Kansas State women almost pulled off the upset last night at the Big 12 Championship. Ahead by seven with less than two minutes on the clock, the Wildcats found their lead evaporate on a 10-point run by West Virginia, and a coast-to-coast buzzer beater gave the ‘Eers the game 58-56.

The outcome notwithstanding, this was a team effort for Kansas State. Rachel Ranke drained four three-pointers, including one late in the game that put the Wildcats in the lead. Christiana Carr scored 12 points in the game, a team-high 20th game in double figures. Ayoka Lee tallied the 29th double-double of her career, with 11 points and 10 rebounds on the day.

With that, the basketball season in Manhattan is truly over.

Baseball

It took some ninth-inning heroics, but the BatCats put away Northern Illinois 4-3 last night. A two-run single from Dylan Phillips helped tie the game at the bottom of the inning, and two stolen bases and a ground ball from Dylan Caplinger gave Kansas State the victory on a walk-off.

Kasey Ford got the start at the mound and did well, tossing six innings with five strikeouts, but it was up to the bullpen—Jaxon Passino and Tyler Eckberg—to pull off the win.

The second game of the series is underway right now, and you can listen to the live audio stream HERE.

Track and Field

The second day of the NCAA Indoor Championships is in the books. Four Wildcats—Tejaswin Shankar (men’s high jump), Taishia Pryce (women’s long jump), Chantoba Bright (women’s long jump), and Vitoria Alves (women’s 60H) all earned All-American honors, though none finished with gold.

Shankar did not have his best performance of the season, jumping 2.24m on his third attempt, and finishing behind LSU’s JuVaughn Harrison (2.30) and USC’s Earnie Sears (2.24m, fewer attempts). Still, that was good enough for a third-place finish. Shankar joins Christoff Bryan as the only Wildcats to earn three consecutive first-team All-American nods at the NCAA Indoors.

In the women’s long jump, Pryce finished in seventh place with a season-best leap of 6.48m, good enough for first team honors. Bright followed in 15th place at 6.19m. The event was won by Texas’ Tara Davis, who set a new collegiate record (6.93m) in the process.

Alves, the lone Wildcat to take to the track at the NCAA Indoors, ran an 8.35s race in the 60m hurdles qualifying, but did not make the finals. Nevertheless, her time was good enough for second team All-American honors, the first Wildcat hurdler since Akela Jones to earn that honor.

Shankar and Bright will both be in action today in the triple jump, along with Rhianna Phipps, also competing in triple jump.

Tennis

The weekend did not begin that well for the Kansas State tennis squad. Lining up against #33 Texas Tech, the Wildcats lost every match to finish 0-7. This was the Big 12 opener for both teams, but the Red Raiders dominated the courts, taking the first singles point early and then crushing the two doubles matches.

Up next, the tennis team will take on TCU at 1 PM on Sunday.