Posted on Sat, Apr. 01, 2006

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NITTY-GRITTY CATS

K-State beats Marquette for WNIT championship

By MECHELLE VOEPEL

The Kansas City Star

ALLISON LONG/The Kansas City Star

K-State's Claire Coggins scored around Marquette's Jasmine McCullough during the second half of Friday's sold-out WNIT championship game at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan. Coggins was named the game's most valuable player.

• Photo slide show
• Dietz gives Cats a lift in title game
• Notebook: Zanotti contributes

MANHATTAN, Kan. — A net came down, and the cheers went up. The joyful noise had been there all night, though. A packed house of 13,340 at Bramlage Coliseum celebrated a Kansas State women’s basketball season that couldn’t have ended much better.

“Maybe if it was the NCAA national championship,” said Jessica McFarland, K-State’s lone senior. “This was pretty close, though.”

The Wildcats beat Marquette 77-65 in the WNIT title game. That gave the K-State women’s program its first national postseason championship.

K-State’s players and coach Deb Patterson cut down the net in front of their bench. Each saved a piece of twine that symbolized a 24-10 season in which a young team established that there would, indeed, be life after the beloved “Big Four” were all gone.

Junior guard Twiggy McIntyre, at 5 feet 5 the smallest Wildcat, liked the view from high on the ladder when it was her turn to wield the scissors.

“It feels really cool to be that close to the rim,” said a grinning McIntyre, who had 16 points Friday. “When we started this tournament, Coach P., all of our staff and us as a team came together and set a goal to win it. Mission accomplished.”

Freshman Shalee Lehning concluded a spectacular tournamentlong performance with the fourth triple-double in K-State women’s history. She had 14 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.

During the five games of the WNIT, Lehning averaged 7.4 points, 10.2 rebounds and 7.2 assists.

She became the school record-holder in single-season assists during a WNIT quarterfinal win against Nebraska. Lehning finished the year with 189 assists.

“(She’s) just that spunky, do-it-all, no-nonsense player,” Marquette coach Terri Mitchell said of Lehning. “She stepped on the court right from the get-go as the leader, and I think it takes something special to do that as a freshman.”

Lehning didn’t make the WNIT all-tournament team, though she easily could have. Instead, the Wildcats were represented by sophomore guard Kimberly Dietz, who had a team-high 21 points Friday, and junior wing player Claire Coggins, who scored only eight points in the title game but averaged 17.4 points in the tournament. Coggins, who led K-State in scoring in three of the WNIT games, was selected the tournament’s MVP.

“In my eyes, everyone sitting at this table deserves a part of that MVP,” Coggins said in the postgame news conference. “Shalee — a triple-double … I don’t think I’ve ever dreamed of having a triple-double. That’s unbelievable. Dietz was clutch tonight, Twiggy was clutch, J-Mac had a great tournament. I’m very proud to be a part of this team.”

As was the case in the semifinal against Western Kentucky, K-State trailed by one point at halftime. Both teams kept making runs on each other throughout the game.

Finally, though, the Wildcats took the lead for good at 61-58 on Dietz’s three-pointer with 7 minutes, 29 seconds left. That started a 9-0 run that included a key sequence in which Lehning kept a possession alive with a rebound and then finished it with a layup after a great pass from Coggins at the top of the key.

Then Dietz hit a layup, and so did JoAnn Hamlin on Lehning’s 10th assist of the night.

“Every run that Kansas State made, we had responded,” Mitchell said. “But at that point, we didn’t respond. We were getting the same shots we did in the first half, but we weren’t knocking them down. I thought the game really took a more physical approach in the second half.”

Free throws almost cost K-State a loss in the semifinals, but the Wildcats nailed them to seal the title game. They made all eight of their attempts in final minute-plus.

“I thought it was a very fitting ending to our season, not just because of the win but how we won,” Patterson said. “How everyone that had an opportunity on the floor stepped up and gave us something that was significant. I think that’s what this team learned to do.”

There were some rough spots, for sure. The Wildcats lost five seniors from 2005, including stars Kendra Wecker, Megan Mahoney and Laurie Koehn. Those three and Nicole Ohlde had combined during 2002-2004 to revitalize the K-State women. It was that group that was responsible for the first sellout in program history, back in January 2002.

Ohlde and Koehn were among those in the sold-out arena Friday night, watching the “next generation” team win a title.

“We came into this season knowing we would show what being a true team was,” McIntyre said. “We really didn’t have that one particular go-to player. Everyone depends on each other.

“We’re the epitome of what a team is.”

K-State 77, Marquette 65

 Percentages: FG, .426; FT, .706. Three-point goals: 7-16 (Kamm 3-4, Monfre 2-5, Kovalenko 1-1, Quaye 1-1, Kieger 0-1, Ellis 0-4). Blocked shots: 3 (Ellis, McCullough, Quaye). Steals: 4 (Kieger, Kovalenko, McCullough, Quaye). Fouled out: None. Technicals: None.

 Percentages: FG, .456; FT, .810; Three-point goals: 8-21 (Dietz 5-9, McIntyre 2-5, Coggins 1-4, Lehning 0-3). Blocked shots: 1 (Zanotti). Steals: 15 (Lehning 4, Coggins 2, Dietz 2, Gipson 2, Hamlin 2, McIntyre 2, McFarland). Fouled out: None. Technicals: None.

Halftime: Marquette 39-38. Announced attendance: 13,340. Officials: Bryan Enterline, Jesse Dickerson, Cameron Inouye.