Kansas State stifles Missouri in Manhattan

After the Kansas State men’s basketball team flew into the Columbia airport on Friday, the Missouri women boarded the same plane and left a day earlier than scheduled for Manhattan, Kan. to beat the ice storm that hit most of Missouri

But they still couldn’t beat the Wildcats Saturday night.

Missouri (13-4, 1-3 Big 12) lost to Kansas State (14-2, 2-1) 81-66. The Tigers shot just 39 percent and only scored 2 points off the bench. The Wildcats outscored Missouri 50-26 in the key.

Tiffany Brooks led the Tigers in scoring, posting a season-high 26 points and made all eight of her free throws. After scoring more than 20 points in seven of the last 10 games, EeTisha Riddle had only 13 points and ended the game with a 35.7 shooting percentage.

“I think our chemistry was off the entire game,” MU coach Cindy Stein said in a press release. “We still have plenty of games left. We have started 0-4 before and still gone to the tournament.”

The Tigers ended the first half trailing the Wildcats 32-29. In the half, Missouri shot 32.3 percent compared to Kansas State’s 52 percent. Out of six attempted three pointers, Carlynn Savant’s was the only one to go in.

Savant’s 3-pointer put the Tigers up 10-9 to give them the lead for the last time in the game. After a jumper by Wildcat Marlies Gipson to start the second half, Savant shot another 3-pointer, then a jumper to tie the score at 34.

Missouri kept the game close for much of the second half, but the score kept slipping away. Kansas State’s largest lead was 16 points near the end of the game.

Kansas State had not played since last Saturday when the team beat then 17th-ranked, now 19th-ranked, Texas A&M. As of January 8, the Wildcats are tied for first on the list of teams receiving votes in the Associated Press poll.

Missouri will play Texas Tech (10-7, 1-2) at 7 p.m. on Wednesday in Lubbock, Texas. Texas Tech’s game against Oklahoma on Sunday was rescheduled for January 22 because of weather conditions.