K-State Hosts 11th-Ranked Kentucky in SEC/Big 12 Challenge

MANHATTAN, Kan. - K-State Women's Basketball begins the month of December with the SEC/Big 12 Challenge against (11/12) Kentucky on Thursday night at 6:30 p.m.
• Thursday's game can be seen live on Big 12 Now on ESPN+, as Brian Smoller (play-by-play) and Missy Heidrick (analyst) will have the call.
• This is the fourth time K-State will face a top-15 opponent in either the first or second game of the season and the first time since the 2010-11 season, when the Wildcats defeated 14th-ranked St. John's in the second game of the season.
• For the 11th consecutive season, Kansas State won its season-opener with a 66-51 win over Southern on November 29. The 11 straight wins in season-openers is one shy of the school record streak of 12 from the 1975-76 season through the 1987-88 season.
• The Wildcats are led this season in scoring by sophomore Ayoka Lee and junior Christianna Carr. Lee is averaging 17.0 points on a .533 field goal percentage, while Carr is averaging 15.0 points and 4.0 rebounds.

Starting 5
Five names, numbers or storylines about K-State women's basketball
1. Block Party
• K-State tallied 10 blocks against Southern in the season-opener. The 10 blocks were tied for the second-most in the Big 12 during the opening week.
2. Ebert Makes First Career start
• Sophomore Emilee Ebert made her first career start during the season-opener against Southern. Ebert filled the stat sheet with four points and career-highs of four rebounds, six assists, four blocks and a steal in 26 minutes. Ebert leads the Big 12 in assist/turnover ratio at 6.0.
3. Lee a Candidate for Four National Awards
• Ayoka Lee is a candidate for the 2021 Jersey Mike's Naismith Trophy, the 2021 Wade Trophy, the 2021 Wooden Award and the 2021 Lisa Leslie Award. Lee is averaging 17.0 points on a .533 field goal percentage, 9.0 rebounds and 4.0 blocks.
4. Carr from Afar
• Junior guard Christianna Carr tallied a trio of 3-point connections in the season-opening win over Southern. This is the second straight season Carr has shot 40.0 percent or better from 3-point range in the season-opener.
5. Paint Touches
• K-State registered 50 points in the paint against Southern and outscored the Jaguars, 50-24, in the lane. The 50 points in the paint were the most since K-State tallied 52 at Arkansas on December 7, 2019.

Last Time Out
Kansas State 66, Southern 51 (November 29, 2020; Manhattan, Kan.)
• K-State won its season-opener for the 11th straight season.
• The Wildcats outscored the Jaguars in the fourth quarter, 21-10, and held Southern to a fourth quarter field goal percentage of .071.
• K-State was led by Ayoka Lee with 17 points and nine rebounds, while Christianna Carr tallied 15 points and four rebounds.

Number to Know
72.4
• Kansas State recorded 21 assists against Southern in the season-opener. The Wildcats finished with an assist rate of 72.4 percent.
• K-State led the Big 12 in the opening week with a single-game high of 21 assists.
• The assist rate of 72.4 percent was the highest since March 8, 2020 against Kansas when the Wildcats notched an assist rate of 82.1 percent.
• In the Jeff Mittie era, K-State has registered an assist rate of 70 percent or better in a game 52 times including a high of 12 games in the 2017-18 season.

At a Glance: Kentucky
• Kentucky (2-0) opened the 2020-21 season with a pair of home wins, downing Murray State and Belmont.
• Before the start of the season, the Wildcats had a change on the season, as head coach Matthew Mitchell was forced to retire due to health complications from an offseason surgery. Longtime associate head coach Kyra Elzye was named interim head coach.
• On the floor, Kentucky has been led by Chasity Patterson and Dre'Una Edwards.
• Patterson picked up the offensive slack left by junior forward and preseason All-American Rhyne Howard, who missed the first two games. Patterson is averaging 20.0 points.
• Edwards is averaging 14.5 points and 8.0 rebounds.

Career Debuts at K-State
• Five players - Sydney Goodson, Taylor Lauterbach, Jada Moore, Makayla Pippin and Jada Thorpe - made their K-State debuts on Sunday against Southern.
• This was the most K-State players to make their K-State debut in a season-opener since the 2017-18 season when six players debuted against Stephen F. Austin.
• Goodson (5), Lauterbach (4) and Moore (6) each scored in their first appearances in a Wildcat uniform.
• Of the 75 players to make their K-State women's basketball career debuts from the 2000-01 season to the 2020-21 season, only three scored 20 or more points in their first game.
• The three players to score 20 or more points in their Kansas State career debuts were: Laurie Koehn (27 points, at Georgia Tech, 11/16/2001), Kaylee Page (21 points, at Tulsa, 11/13/2015) and Tasha Dickey (20 points, vs. Dartmouth, 11/12/2011).
• None of the three players were true freshmen at the time of their K-State career debuts. Koehn was a redshirt freshman. Page was a sophomore after transferring from Nebraska and Dickey was a senior who was a graduate transfer from Arizona.

Cats Send Back Shots Under Mittie
• Under head coach Jeff Mittie, Kansas State has piled up blocked shots. K-State has sent back 936 shots for 4.78 per game in the 196 games. K-State has 140 or more blocks in each of Mittie's six seasons.
• K-State opened the 2020-21 season with 10 blocks against Southern. The 10 blocks were tied for the second most in the Big 12 during the opening week.
• K-State has blocked 10 or more shots in a game 10 times (9-1) since Mittie took over the program in 2014-15.
• In the 2019-20 season, the Wildcats averaged 5.6 blocks per game and had 163 total blocks. K-State ranked 11th in the nation in blocks per game and 16th for total blocks. According to herhoopstats.com, K-State ranked 17th in the nation in block rate at 12.9 percent. K-State has finished among the top-35 in block rate in three of the last five seasons including 11th in the 2015-16 season.
• K-State's blocks total of 163 tied for second in school history for a single season.
• The per game total of 5.6 set the single-season record, topping the previous mark of 5.0 set in the 2007-08 season.
• K-State set a 2019-20 season-high with 11 blocks against UIC on November 11. The 11 blocks were the third-highest total in the Mittie era and the sixth-most in program history for a single game.

K-State Attacking the Paint
• Kansas State attacked the lane in its season-opening win over Southern. The Wildcats tallied 50 points in the paint, which were the most since December 7, 2019, at Arkansas when K-State notched 52 points.
• In the 2019-20 season, Kansas State pounded the paint. The Wildcats scored 988 (34.1 ppg) of its 1,996 points from the lane or 49.5 percent of its point total.
• K-State outscored opponents in the paint by a margin of +208 in the 2019-20 season.
• Under head coach Jeff Mittie, Kansas State has scored 900 or more points in the paint in six straight seasons including a high of 1,064 points (31.3 ppg) during the 2016-17 season.
• The Wildcats scored a season-high 52 points in the paint at Arkansas on December 7. The 52 points in the lane were the most since the Wildcats scored 54 paint points against West Virginia on January 1, 2017.
• K-State had 10 games with 40 or more points scored in the lane last season.

Carr with 3 on the Floor
• Christianna Carr opened the 2020-21 season with 15 points including a 3-of-7 effort from 3-point range.
• In her career, Carr has made 114 three-pointers. The product of Manhattan, Kansas, is the 21st player in school history with 100 or more career 3-point field goals made and the seventh to do so by the conclusion of her sophomore season.
• Carr has 31 career games with two or more 3-point field goals made including 11 games with four or more and a career-high of five twice.
• Carr ranks fourth for 3-point field goals made by a player 6'0" or taller in school history.
• In the 2019-20 season, averaged 9.8 points and pulled in 2.8 rebounds. She shot 28.2 percent (55-of-195) from beyond the arc. She ranked seventh in the Big 12 for 3-point field goals made per game (1.90).
• At Kansas, Carr recorded her eighth career game with 20 or more points with 20. She buried four 3-point field goals against the Jayhawks. In total against Kansas last season, Carr made eight 3-point field goals.