• Topeka Capital: K-State's Chambers survives to play again
• Manhattan Mercury: Texada a steady force for K-State
• Kansas State Collegian: Full speed ahead: K-State blows by Illinois in WNIT
• Kansas City Star: K-State women reach WNIT semifinals

• Chambers & Co. earn WNIT semifinals, March 30
• K-State women continue on in WNIT against Illinois, March 29
• Chambers' 23 lead K-State into WNIT quarters, March 28
• K-State women host Ball State in WNIT, March 27
• K-State women win again in WNIT, will play Thursday at home, March 25
• K-State home for second-round game", March 24
• Chambers enjoys record night in K-State rout, March 21
• K-State women open WNIT at home, March 20
• K-State women in postseason WNIT, March 19

Brittany Chambers led all scorers with 21, including five three-pointers, but this afternoon was a breakout game for Chantay Caron. She had 19 points, hitting 7 of 13 from the field, and five of six on free throws. She had six rebounds and three steals, and was a huge part of the victory today. Haley Texada came to play. She went seven of 15 on field goals, ending with 16 points. She had five rebounds, three assists and two steals.

The Cats led from 14:14 in the first half. In the second half, often leading by about 15 points, Kansas State clearly wanted to slow the tempo of the game. On several occasions, a possession ended with a shot just before the clock expired. With only seven available players, as usual, the starting five played 188 of 200 minutes. The Cats collected a total of 14 steals. Often their opponent had given up the ball before she knew what hit her. Mariah White led in steals with four, with every other starter adding at least two. On defense, the Cats held Illinois to a season-low 48 points. Kansas State, now 19-17, is assured of a winning season. Here's a report from Illinois.

Brittany Chambers continues to set records every time she steps on the court. This afternoon, with her 14th point, she passed Jacob Pullen in career points. The significance of that is recording more career points than any Kansas State men's basketball player... ever. Here's the updated 2,000-point club chart:

1. Kendra Wecker: 2,333
2. Nicole Ohlde: 2,241
3. Brittany Chambers: 2,140
4. Jacob Pullen: 2,132
5. Mike Evans: 2,115

Coach P said, "It was an exciting first round game for us to watch Brittany (Chambers) set all kinds of records and come out with an extraordinary offensive performance. I like the assist numbers on the night. I felt like we got into a great flow. You could really just see that Brittany Chambers was at her offensive best tonight. She scored in a variety of ways, and just had a beautiful stroke."

Chambers said, "I think that I am always kind of aware of my points. I think I am just one of those players. I do not think that I get lost in the points. I did not realize that I was getting that many in the first half until I looked up at the last shot. At halftime, my teammates are dorks and they were saying all this crazy stuff. We are just trying to take care of business at this point. We are very fortunate to still be here, so we are taking the advantage being on the court and getting another opportunity."

The 2,000-point club for K-State:

1. Kendra Wecker: 2,333
2. Nicole Ohlde: 2,241
3. Jacob Pullen: 2,132
4. Mike Evans: 2,115
5. Brittany Chambers: 2,068

Let's not forget the other six available players, who have accomplished amazing things this season. Next up for the Cats is Illinois State, on Monday, March 25 in Bramlage Coliseum.

Hey... I have some extra white space here, so let's give Ms. Chambers a shout out for sliding into 3rd place on the K-State Women's Basketball career scoring list. A 34-point game vs. Iowa State on Saturday brought her to 1,824 points. She's now averaging 19.4 points per game. With a minimum of eight games remaining in her career, Brittany needs to average 22 points per game to reach 2,000 points for K-State. Again, she's #3 all-time, only behind two First Team All-Americans named Wecker and Ohlde. Very nice work.

A memory I have of Shalee's playing days is her assists. Always unselfish, she holds the K-State career assist record, with 800. She holds spots one through four on the season assists records. Shalee is #1 on the career assist-to-turnover list. She is second in the Big 12 in career assists.

March 5, 2008: K-State was ending a fine season (22-10), and this evening found them playing KU in Allen Field House. I was there. The Cats came out tight. Their shots weren't falling, and they were behind. Shalee put the team on her shoulders. She repeatedly drove the basket, accumulating 20 points' worth of lay-ups, and added nine points from free throws. That's right: 29 points. The Cats ultimately won, 61-50. KU guard LaChelda Jacobs said of Shalee, "I partially take the blame for this loss. Lehning scored on me all night. It was a one-man wrecking show for her." A fun by-product of that victory was transporting a brand new Big 12 Championship trophy back to Manhattan.

Leadership - both vocal leadership and always setting a great example - was evident in every game Shalee played. She was all over the court, giving every possible bit of effort. (video) After her last home game, Shalee's #5 jersey was retired. (video) Finally... and you just saw it if you watched her jersey retirement video, Shalee is an outstanding communicator. We're very fortunate to have her on our coaching staff.

Art. 1. At the start of the game, each team shall consist of five players, one of whom shall be the captain.

Art. 2. Each team may continue to play with fewer than five players when all other squad members are not eligible or able to play.

It didn't matter much that KSU had beaten OSU in 10 of the last 12 meetings... Okie State is ranked #12, and came in 13-3. How were seven six not-especially-tall K-Staters supposed to beat a strong OSU team?

The Cats kept grinding it out. Brittany Chambers went nuts in the first half, contributing 19 points, enroute to a finish with 26 points. She moved from #5 to #4 on the career scoring list, passing the legendary Laurie Koehn. She now has 1,747 points. OSU's Toni Young ended with 22 points, and Brittney Martin had 15. Amazingly, OSU shot 65% in the first half, and had a five-point lead near halftime, but the Cats clawed back, and went to the locker room leading 43-42.

There were some crazy numbers in this game: 1) K-State set an all-time record, with 16 three-pointers. 2) There were also 16 K-State steals to OSU's 2, and 18 OSU turnovers, to KSU's nine. 3) In spite of the three-point record, K-State shot only 35.4% for the game, while Okie State shot 46%. 4) OSU dominated KSU in rebounds, at 44-30. 5) Oklahoma State did very well with free throws at 85.7%, to K-State's respectable 73.7%. 6) K-State won the first half by one; OSU won the second half by one. K-State was strong in overtime, and ultimately won, 76-70, in spite of several last-second shots in overtime. 7) K-State hasn't posted the final stats. Here they are from OSU. The Collegian has a nice feature on this spectacular victory. (Edit): Wendell Barnhouse of big12sports.com has posted this complimentary account of the big win.

Coach Patterson said,

"It goes without saying how proud I am of our basketball team tonight. We played a great basketball team. It just feels so good for our players to rise up with such toughness and character. We have talked all year about competing in a 40-minute game; little did we know it would take 45 minutes to get this one back. I am just extremely proud of everyone on our roster, and everyone who took the floor. This is just a great effort by a group of really tough-minded competitors of Kansas State that made their mind up to win the game. We talked about that all year, and tonight it just all came together. It is just very, very rewarding to see them have that kind of success.

I just absolutely loved our gutsy mentality on the defensive end... our willingness to run to the ball, and create steals. Tonight our kids did not want to lose. It was really special."

"We were going to guard them man. To guard them, you have to contain the dribble-drive, because everything they do is to spread the floor, put the ball on the floor, dribble-drive, make two play one and kick it out to the shooter. We did not stop the dribble-drive. That is what led to so many of the threes."

Brittany Chambers, who suffered a bad sprained ankle five days earlier, played all three games in this classic, including 31 minutes today. This was a great testament to her determination and commitment, as her ankle, claimed Brian Smoller, was "the size of a cantaloupe" on Dec. 16. But wait... Chambers had a double-double by halftime! She made 5 of 11 three-pointers, hit three-of-three on free throws, collected 15 rebounds and had five assists. She had 28 points in 31 minutes of play. This, ladies and gentlemen, is All-American caliber work.

Bri Craig had a fine evening. She made six of 12 field goals, with three from beyond the arc, contributing 15 points. Mariah White had six rebounds and four assists. Chantay Caron had eight points and five assists.

This game should provide a real boost of confidence, after losses to two Top 20 teams. Nice work, Cats!

Brittany is averaging an impressive 20.7 points per game to date. With easily 24 games remaining this season, Chambers will very likely check out at #3 all-time in scoring. She has a tremendous accomplishment already, with much more to come.