LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) -- Kendra Wecker's shots bounced off the rim,
carried long -- sometimes missed entirely.
But that was from inside the 3-point line, where Wecker was a
miserable 1-for-7. From long range, she was perfect.
She went 5-for-5 from outside the arc -- hitting two 3s in the
first minute alone -- and scored 18 points in No. 4 Kansas State's
88-49 win over Kansas on Wednesday night.
"Kendra has a problem with beating herself up when she makes mistakes,'' Kansas State coach Deb Patterson said. "You can't play basketball when you're beating yourself up. But she made adjustments in the second half -- that's part of her maturing process.''
Nicole Ohlde also had 18 points -- to go along with her 11
rebounds -- as the Wildcats won their ninth straight game and
extended Kansas' Big 12 Conference losing streak to 17.
"Ohlde is a great player,'' said Tamara Ransburg, Kansas' freshman center. "I always wanted to play against her in high school, and I would love to face her again sometime.
Laurie Koehn hit four 3-pointers and finished with 14 points for Kansas State (14-1), which who shot 55 percent (11-for-20) from 3-point range in the conference opener for both teams.
Ransburg's 13 points and 1 rebounds led Kansas (7-5), which had
won three straight. The Jayhawks were 0-16 last season in the
conference.
"We have 15 more games,'' Kansas coach Marian Washington said. "Winning wouldn't make us, losing wouldn't break us.''
Freshman Erica Hallman added 11 points for Kansas.
Kansas State broke the game open with an 11-0 run just before
the midpoint of the second half, capped by Brie Madden's basket
with 10:55 left for a 64-39 lead. Madden, who finished with 12
points, also hit the last basket in a 12-0 run that made it 86-48
with just under 2½ minutes remaining.
Kansas State hit its first four shots, including three
3-pointers, and led 10-2 with less than two minutes gone in the
game. Wecker had seven points in the first minute, adding a foul
shot after her second 3-pointer for a four-point play.
But the Wildcats were 10-for-26 from the field over the next 19
minutes and were able to widen their lead to only 41-30 by the
half.
"We can't let down like that,'' Wecker said. "We let it slip away in the first half, but we got it corrected.''
Kansas State committed 10 turnovers in the first half, seven in
the second -- but the Jayhawks were able to score only four points
off those miscues.
Kansas committed 21 turnovers -- which the Wildcats converted
into 25 points -- and shot just 29 percent (17-for-58) from the
field.
Kansas State fans made up an overwhelming majority of the crowd,
which was announced at 5,318 but looked -- and sounded -- bigger.
"To go into a different gym and look up and see all that purple -- that really gets us ready to play,'' Wecker said. "The loyalty and support our fans give us is amazing.''