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Kansas St.
Kansas State powers past Akron, 86-68, in WNIT opening round
March 19 | Women's Basketball
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MANHATTAN, Kan. - The Akron women's basketball team was forced to play from behind throughout and the Zips (22-9) were unable to overcome a hot-shooting Kansas State (19-13) squad in the opening round of the Women's National Invitation Tournament on Thursday, March 19, as the Wildcats registered an 86-68 triumph.
Junior Anita Brown (Warren, Ohio) led Akron with a team-high 22 points on 9-of-16 shooting, while sophomore Hannah Plybon (Orrville, Ohio) added 15 points, all on three-pointers.
In the final game of her distinguished Zips' career, senior Sina King (Waterford, Ohio) registered her team-leading 16th double-double of the season with a 20-point, 10-rebound performance. King finished her career having recorded 1,634 points and 888 rebounds, representing the fourth-highest scoring and third-best rebounding totals in program history.
The Wildcats were paced with a 30-point contest from Haley Texada, while Breanna Lewis, Ashia Woods and Brianna Craig contributed 11, 10 and 10 points, respectively.
The Zips connected on 39 percent of their shots from the field, including making nine three-pointers. Kansas State posted a 57.1 percent shooting mark for the game.
Thanks to Kings' 10 rebounds, Akron outrebounded the Wildcats, 32-31, including 12-5 on the offensive glass.
The Wildcats scored the game's first 10 points before a jumper by Brown got the Zips on the scoreboard 2:16 into the affair.
Akron cut into Kansas State's advantage on back-to-back three pointers from Brown and King to trail, 14-8, at the 15:27 mark.
The Wildcats stretched their lead to 23-12 before Plybon nailed a triple with 11:50 remaining in the initial stanza to cut the deficit to eight, 23-15.
The Zips then struggled with their shots from the field missing eight of their next 10 attempts from the field. Kansas State slowly began to stretch their margin during this span leading by as many as 21 points in the first 20 minutes.
The Wildcats entered the intermission maintaining a 50-32 advantage over Akron.
The Zips connected on 37.9 percent of their first-half shots, while Kansas State attacked the basket at a 60 percent clip.
Brown paced the Zips in the first half with a team-high 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting, while King and Plybon added seven and six points, respectively. Texada paced the Wildcats' attack with 19 first-half points.
The two sides exchanged the first nine baskets of the second half before back-to-back baskets from King brought the Zips to within 13, 58-45, with 14:26 remaining.
Kansas State answered with a 16-5 run to assume its largest lead of the game, 74-50, lead at the 9:39 mark and the Wildcats didn't look back en route to notching the 86-68 triumph.
The loss concludes another successful campaign for the Zips, one in which Akron registered 22 wins for third consecutive season. The Zips return four starters for the 2015-16 campaign, including 2014-15 starters Brown, Plybon, junior DiAndra Gibson (Ravenna, Ohio) and freshman Kerri McMahan (Novi, Mich.).
