The BYU’s women’s basketball team tacked on another loss to its season Wednesday night, when they lost to Kansas State 59-46 in Manhattan, Kan. The Cougars now hold a 1-2 record.
But even with the tough loss, it was a good night for the guards. All three of the starting guards — Lexi Eaton, Haley Steed and Kim Parker — scored double digit points. Eaton led with 16 points, while Steed had 13 and Parker with 11.
On the other hand, it was a rough night for starting forwards and seniors Kristen Riley and Dani Peterson. Peterson was only 2-for-7 from the field and Riley 1-for-6.
“I thought my guards … competed very well,” BYU coach Jeff Judkings said. “But my inside presence tonight wasn’t what I expected [or] what this team really needs.”
Parker, a sophomore from Heber, echoed Judkins’ thoughts.
“It was just [the guards’] night tonight,” Parker said. “Obviously [Kansas State] has some really good [players] inside, but if we’re going to win games, we need post-presence so that the pressure isn’t so hard on the guards.”
BYU had a dry run for about 10 minutes during the second half, not scoring any points until Steed committed with a field goal with 2:46 left on the clock.
For the first time this season, the Cougars were out-rebounded — the Wildcats had 40 to BYU’s 35. The 16 offensive rebounds nabbed by Kansas State resulted in 12 second-chance points.
Kansas State’s Jalana Childs led all scorers with 18 points. Stocking up nine rebounds total, Childs had more offensive rebounds than defensive.
“I thought [Childs], especially in the first half, dominated getting the ball where she wanted to get in the post, and being aggressive in there,” Judkins said. “[Kansas State] threw it to [Childs] and she scored it.”
Freshman starter Eaton said things finally clicked for her during tonight’s game.
“I just feel like lately I’ve been struggling with my nerves, and today I really just focused on the fundamentals,” Eaton said. “My teammates did a great job of creating those open looks for me and I converted, and that just got me going this game.”
Eaton said the game lost all momentum during the last minute when all of the starters were subbed out, but what really killed the game was the team’s mentality, or lack thereof — they didn’t come ready to play.
Judkins said that ultimately K-State seemed to want the win more.
“Basketball is so mental sometimes,” Judkins said. “You have ups and downs, and we’re just going to have to learn from this. This is a tough road trip. I think we could have won both games here, and … it would have been nice. This is a team that we should have beat tonight.”
