MANHATTAN, Kan. – (13/13) K-State used its only exhibition tune-up on Wednesday night at Bramlage Coliseum to stifle Washburn with an 89-36 win.
K-State featured four players in double figures led by senior Temira Poindexter with a perfect night of 14 points on 5-of-5 shooting, including 2-of-2 from three-point range and 2-of-2 from the foul line.
Senior Ayoka Lee added 11 points and seven rebounds in 12 minutes, while sophomore Zyanna Walker carded 11 points, five rebounds and five assists. Senior Kennedy Taylor came off the bench to notch 10 points, five rebounds, four steals and two blocks.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- K-State used a 15-2 run over a five-minute stretch in the first quarter to build a 21-9 lead after the opening frame. The Wildcats had six assists on its seven made field goals in the first 10 minutes and shot 58.3 percent (7-of-12) from the field, including 50.0 percent (4-of-8) from long range.
- The Wildcats used a 14-2 run over the first four minutes of the second quarter to build a 35-11 lead. Poindexter started the scoring with an acrobatic finish on a 3-point play with 8:57 remaining. Sundell followed with a 3-pointer that saw every Wildcat make one pass from one side of the floor to the other.
- Zyanna Walker added a layup, while Sundell cashed in a transition layup. Sundell connected on a lob to Poindexter with 6:18 left in the second quarter and Ayoka Lee ended the run with a layup.
- Washburn to pull to within 18, 37-19, with 2:23 remaining but a Taryn Sides 3-pointer with a minute left gave the Wildcats a 40-19 halftime lead.
- K-State shot 46.9 percent (15-of-32) in the first half, including 37.5 percent (6-of-16) from 3-point range. The Wildcats held the Ichabods to 29.2 percent (7-of-24) shooting, including 28.6 percent (2-of-7) from long range.
- Lee would score eight of K-State’s first 10 points of the third quarter to stake the Wildcats to a 51-21 lead and force a Washburn timeout with 6:44 to play.
- K-State ended the third quarter on a 17-2 run and held a 70-25 lead heading to the fourth quarter. The Wildcats outscored the Ichabods 30-6 in the third frame. K-State scored 30 or more points in a quarter twice last season, including a season-high of 36 in the third quarter against Missouri on Dec.9, 2023.
- K-State won the fourth quarter, 19-11.
- The Wildcats ended the night shooting 48.5 percent (32-of-66) from the field, including 37.5 percent (9-of-24) from the 3-point line.
- Washburn was held to 23.2 percent shooting (13-of-56), including 15.8 percent (3-of-19) from long range. The Wildcats forced the Ichabods into 31 turnovers, which K-State turned into 36 points.
FROM THE HEAD COACH
K-State Head Coach Jeff Mittie
On what he looks for in an exhibition like this…
“I think that there'll be some things that we really like. I thought at times we played really unselfishly. I thought we saw [Temira] Poindexter do some good things out there. I thought Jae [Jaelyn Glenn] was really active defensively. I thought Serena had a pretty good pace to her. I bet we haven't spent 20 minutes live against the press. And so when they started pressing. I was like ‘oh, this will be interesting, this will be good practice for us.’ So what they did tonight, we haven’t spent a whole lot of time on, so it's really good for us in the sense that a lot of players had to play positions that we've only kind of shelled. We do five minutes three times a week on press break, but it's with no defense. It's kind of a warm up drill for spacing, but we really haven't spent any time in live practice. So I was pleased.Obviously, [Gisele] Sanchez struggled in the first half with the turnovers, but I thought she made a good adjustment in the second half and calmed down a little bit. Kennedy [Taylor] struggled a little bit in terms of the speed of the game. We wanted that center to be a finisher, but she made good corrections in the second half. I thought our defense got better as the game went on. I go into this game, and into every exhibition game and the minutes are already decided. It is way more important for me to get answers about our rotation, to see different lineups, to let a player play through a rough stretch, to see how they respond to that. And I thought there were some good things.”
On how well Zyanna Walker handled starting…
“I thought early on, she was pretty tentative, she was indecisive, but I thought as the game wore on, you really saw her play well. She has been the hardest worker since spring, in the gym all the time. As you guys have heard me say before, I talk about coaching players who do the right thing. What I mean by that is, if I come up to the office at nine o'clock at night and the music's playing, if I come in there at five in the morning before a lovely early morning flight out of Manhattan, I've caught Zyanna doing a lot of good things, so I like what she gives us. Defensively, she has the ability to really be active there, and then offensively, I think her game continues to grow.”
On Temira Poindexter’s performance…
“I was really pleased with her unselfishness in stretches. I'd like to see her be more aggressive against the press, but when you've never practiced against the press, you're working on 5, 6, 7, 8, passes. I thought she had an opportunity to just get it and go. But to her credit, she didn't force things. She didn't do too many crazy things, she played within herself, but I think you'll see her make more plays as the season goes along.”
On Kennedy Taylor’s performance…
“I think she's had good practices, we've been really pleased with her practices recently, I think she had some nerves tonight, I think a Kansas kid coming home had some nerves early. But I thought she played better, and I thought she did some really good things, particularly her third and fourth rotations back in the game. I thought she played well.”
FROM THE FLOOR
K-State Senior Forward Temira Poindexter
On adapting to K-State after transferring…
“It's been good. I feel like I've integrated into the team pretty well. They’ve all been so welcoming and so supportive. I feel like we played good tonight, I feel like it was good practice, we still have a lot of stuff we obviously need to work on, but overall, it was like a good practice game for us.”
K-State Sophomore Guard Zyanna Walker
On adapting to becoming a starter…
“I would say I'm pretty comfortable. We've really gained a lot of chemistry throughout the summer and throughout the preseason, so everything's kind of coming together for this team, and the sky's the limit.”
On expectations for this year’s team…
“I'm so excited to see where we end up. I think it can be a really long season for us, so that'll be really exciting. And I just can't wait to play in front of these great fans we have in Bramlage this season.”
On her reaction to being the only non-senior in the starting 5…
“I actually did not know that, and I didn't really think about that until you said that. But I guess that's an honor to just play with the veterans and people who have so much experience.”
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