Never underestimate the power of senior leadership. In a game that was almost dead even midway through the second half, the Vanderbilt senior duo of Jennifer Risper and Christina Wirth turned it up and gave the Commodores the momentum to pull away from the Kansas State Wildcats, winning 74-61. Risper and Wirth combined for 51 of Vanderbilt’s 74 points, with Risper scoring a career high 27. With this win, Vanderbilt advances to the Sweet Sixteen for the 14th time in school history, and fourth trip in head coach Melanie Balcomb‘s seven seasons at VU.

Kansas State, led by all-Big 12 senior guard Shalee Lehning, KSU’s all-time assist leader, proved to be an intriguing and well-balanced challenge for the Commodores. Risper played an inspired first half and Wirth was on fire early for Vandy, but the Wildcats got hot from the outside, nailing 5-of-6 from 3-point range in the first 20 minutes of the game. Kansas State led by as many as 7 several times in the first half, but Vandy hung tough, trailing only 38-37 at the half.

As has been the case almost all season, Vanderbilt made excellent halftime adjustments, and the Commodores committed fully to the gameplan. Risper continued her excellent play despite switching off between two of the toughest defensive assignments: Lehning and senior post Marlies Gipson. Vandy junior Jessica Mooney turned in another stellar defensive performance by applying additional pressure on Lehning, and the Commodores were able to limit the All-American candidate to just 4 assists to go along with 4 turnovers (Lehning had notched 13 assists in K-State’s 68-44 first round win over Drexel). Vandy also shut the Wildcats down completely from the perimeter in the second half, with K-State going 0-for-5 from behind the arc. Despite going cold for a short span where she missed 6 straight shots from the field, Wirth got hot again midway through the second half as Vandy went on an 11-2 run to go up 59-48 with 7:38 remaining in the game. K-State cut the Vandy lead to 8 twice in the final 6 minutes, but were never able to get any closer.

Vanderbilt (26-8) moves on to the Sweet Sixteen, where they will meet #1 seed Maryland in the Raleigh Regional on Saturday, Mar. 28, 2009. Game time TBA. Kansas State ends their season with a 25-8 record.

Remember: There’s always an SEC connection…  Kansas State head coach Deb Patterson and associate head coach Kamie Etheridge both served as assistant coaches at Vanderbilt during the 1990s under former head coach Jim Foster (now at Ohio State). Etheridge was at Vandy from 1991-1996 and Patterson from 1992-1996.