Wichita State women’s basketball savors postseason chance against K-State in WNIT

The Wichita State women’s basketball team has experienced a minor breakthrough in Keitha Adams’ sixth season on the sidelines.

The Shockers (18-14) have won the most games since 2015, also the last time the program reached the postseason, and made history last week by becoming the first team to defeat the No. 1 seed in the American Athletic Conference tournament, knocking off NCAA-bound South Florida.

Now Adams will try to lead WSU to its first postseason win since 2012 when the Shockers play Kansas State (17-16) at 6 p.m. Thursday at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan. The game will be available to watch by streaming ESPN+.

“Building a program, it takes time; it’s not easy,” Adams said. “A lot of things have happened in the last five years with college athletics. The transfer portal, NIL, Covid. It’s taken us a little longer to be in this situation than what I would have liked for. But I never anticipated coaching during a year of a pandemic, either.

“Bottom line is, this is where we want to be, and we want to continue to get better and be playing in postseason play and be at the top of our conference.”

It’s somewhat of a surprise WSU has taken a step forward this season, given several key losses from last season, including leading scorer Mariah McCully, talented forward Asia Strong and four-year stalwarts such as Seraphine Bastin and Carla Bremaud.

While WSU capitalized on its non-conference slate for the best start to a season in school history, the program is still looking to become a consistent winner in its own conference. The Shockers finished in a tie for eighth place in the 11-team standings with a 6-10 mark against AAC teams and haven’t had a winning conference record since 2018.

What has improved with this year’s team has been its shot-making and limiting its turnovers considerably, as the offense has shifted to the post with junior double-double machine Jane Asinde (13.2 points, 10.0 rebounds) and senior center Trajata Colbert (12.4 points, 7.8 rebounds).

“We gelled, and all of the parts fit with each other this season,” junior guard D.J. McCarty said. “I think off the court is a big reason why the on-the-court part was so good. We all like hanging out with each other and just bonding with each other. We had game nights at my house, and off the court we just bonded as sisters and on the court it translated.”

The team pinpointed the 62-55 loss at Houston in the regular-season finale as the precursor for the historic upset last week in Fort Worth.

Adams was upset by her team’s lack of hustle in the loss to Houston and challenged her players to play more inspired on the court before they took on South Florida. They responded with a wire-to-wire 65-53 victory before losing to Houston again in the tournament semifinals.

“I’ve been talking to our team a lot about sweat. We weren’t sweating enough,” Adams said. “When you’re in the locker room at halftime, there’s a big difference when your team is sweating and when the game is over and your uniform is soaked with sweat. I know what that looks like. I’ve seen it. I was very upset at Houston because we weren’t sweaty enough. We need to sweat and play hard, because when you play hard, good things happen.”

Before the season, WSU set its goal of winning 20 games and reaching postseason play. With one goal already accomplished and needing two more wins to check off the other one, the players are motivated ahead of Thursday’s road test.

K-State, which finished ninth in the Big 12, has been a postseason regular under coach Jeff Mittie. The team is led by first-team all-Big 12 player Gabby Gregory, who averages 18.6 points and 5.4 rebounds per game.

Thursday’s winner will face the winner of Wyoming and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, which play on Friday night in Laramie.

“We’re excited to see where this postseason is going to take us,” Asinde said.

“We have a chip on our shoulder going into the WNIT to prove we deserve to be here and we should have been in the NCAA Tournament,” McCarty said.