Too Sooners: Kansas State comes up short late

Norman, OK — A thrilling game between the Oklahoma Sooners and the Kansas State Wildcats ended in a narrow five-point victory for Oklahoma (what a terrible sentence) in overtime. Oklahoma is now 3-0 in the conference, while K-State falls to 1-2.

Kansas State has better offensive points per possession (PPP) than Oklahoma, ranking twenty or so spots higher on the Big List. They had an identical defensive PPP, coming in at a tie for the 53rd spot at .810. It’s not surprising, then, that two similar teams went into overtime (wow, what an insight, Hunter).

The Wildcats were lead by junior guard Karyla Middlebrook, who scored 27 points on 10-19 shooting, 6-8 from the charity stripe and a stat-stuffer line of seven rebounds, three assists, and two steals.

Second was senior forward Breanna Lewis, who had 15 on 7-14 shooting, and grabbed six boards in 25 minutes. Five players were in double digits for the Wildcats, but there were three players with noticeable minutes who scored zero.

Oklahoma was held afloat by Maddie Manning, a senior guard, who scored 20 points on 8-15 shooting, while snatching 10 boards and dishing four assists. Second behind her was Vionsere Pierre-Louis, who scored 17 on 6-8 shooting, including 5-5 from the free throw line. Four Sooners were in double digits.

The big difference in the team stats is the number of assists. K-State had 12, and Oklahoma had 22; that isn’t necessarily a correlation to victory, but it could point to better ball movement and an offense more in tune with itself that one that relies on less passing.

Another thing that jumps out is how many free throws the Wildcats shot; nine more than the Sooners, at 26, of which they made 19. Usually, that is a pretty good indicator of the final tally, but in this case, K-State wasn’t able to pull it out.

The Wildcats play Texas Tech on the seventh, while the Sooners head to #17 West Virginia.