Leticia Romero scored 15 points, leading all K-State scorers, and helped the Cats hold on for a hard-fought 73-64 victory over UC-Santa Barbara at Bramlage Coliseum on Sunday. Ashia Woods added 13 and Bri Craig tallied 11, as the Wildcats improved to 5-3 on the season.
K-State, who hadn’t played in 8 days, got off to a fast start courtesy of a 9-2 run, including a Haley Texada three. Later on in the half, Texada capped an 8-0 run to give the Cats their largest cushion of the day at 28-16. Deb Patterson’s team was able to maintain that advantage, taking a 39-27 advantage into the locker room.
But the Gauchos (4-5) fought back, outscoring the purple 12-6 leading into the first media timeout. A back-and-forth second half ensued, and gradually UC Santa Barbara cut the deficit to just 2 points on two free throws from Oname Jemerigbe with just under four minutes left. Then Craig sank her second three, and K-State would go 7 of 8 from the stripe over the last two minutes to seal the win…a game that UC Santa Barbara never led.
The Cats got quality minutes from Texada, who was under the weather earlier in the week, as well as Erica Young off the bench. For the Gauchos, Melissa Zornig lead all scorers wth 18 points.
The Cats return to action on Saturday as they travel to take on Hampton. They’ll open conference play in their next home game when Baylor visits Manhattan on January 2nd.
