GoPowercat.com - Wildcat women regroup, beat Texas

March 4, 2009

Michael Ashford
GoPowercat.com Staff Writer

For a group of seniors that made a living protecting their home court, Kansas State's quartet of Marlies Gipson, Shalee Lehning, Danielle Zanotti and Kelsey Nelson once again led the way in helping the Wildcats win their home finale in what was one of the biggest games of the season.

The 21st-ranked Wildcat women used a monster defensive stand in the second half to run away from 15th-ranked Texas on the way to a 66-50 win on Senior Night, and each of K-State's four seniors played a key part in the victory.

There was Gipson exploding for a career-high 24 points. Lehning was back in top form coming off a battle with mono, scoring 11 points, grabbing five rebounds and dishing out six assists. Zanotti ripped down four big offensive rebounds. And Nelson, while she didn't score, came down with the final rebound as the final horn sounded.

"This game, to me, was just about our seniors," K-State coach Deb Patterson said. "I thought they dominated what we brought to the floor. They played relative to their strengths, they brought every ounce of the very best that they possess as players, and it gave us just an unbelievable boost and a very big win at this point in time of the season."

K-State's seniors closed out one of the best four-year periods in school history, a stretch in which the Wildcat seniors went 86-41 overall and 51-13 in Bramlage Coliseum. This group of Wildcats also helped win the 2006 WNIT title and the 2008 Big 12 regular season title, and are on their way to a second-straight NCAA Tournament appearance.

But perhaps most importantly for this year's team, the seniors helped K-State (22-6, 9-6 Big 12) get a huge win over the Longhorns at a time when the Wildcats needed it most. K-State had lost back-to-back games for the first time all season and had gone just 3-5 in its last eight games after starting the season 18-1.

So securing a win over a ranked team with only a road game at Colorado (11-16, 3-12) remaining in the regular season was huge for the Wildcats heading into next week's Big 12 Tournament.

"This was a huge opportunity for us," Lehning said. "This just provided a way for us to fight back from adversity.

"Aside from Senior Night or anything, it's just a big win for us to build some momentum going into the (Big 12) Tournament next week."

Gipson was as dominant as she had ever been on the offensive end, going 11-of-21 from the field and 1-for-1 at the free-throw line. Her performance was perhaps a surprise considering she opened the game by getting her first two shots swatted back in her face by the Longhorns' 6-foot-4 Ashley Lindsey.

"Just knowing that I'm undersized, I expected it," said Gipson, who was followed in scoring by Ashley Sweat (14) and Kari Kincaid (12). "But instead of falling over and dying, I just stayed aggressive, and any way I could help was definitely what I was looking to do."

While things clicked offensively for the Wildcats ? K-State shot 46 percent from the field (22-of-48) ? it was their defensive effort that put away the Longhorns (20-9, 8-7).

Keyed by a monster block by Gipson on Brittainey Raven ? who led Texas in scoring with 12 points ? K-State held Texas scoreless for a 5-minute, 47-second stretch in the second half and didn't allow a Texas field goal for nearly 9 minutes. Meanwhile, the Wildcats went on an 18-5 run to turn their five-point edge into a commanding 58-40 advantage with 4:50 left to play.

"They changed up their defense," Texas coach Gail Goestenkors said. "Sometimes they switched on ball screens and sometimes they didn't. Sometimes they switched on all screens and sometimes they didn't. They just kept us off balance a little bit. They did a nice job changing their defensive looks."

The Wildcats close out the regular season on Saturday with a 3 p.m. tipoff at Colorado.

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