Kansas State University Athletics
Sunday, February 25
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1 p.m.
Kansas State University
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Kansas
16-11,9-7Big 12
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(10/9) K-State Upset by Kansas in Dillons Sunflower Showdown
Feb 25, 2024 | Women's Basketball
LAWRENCE, Kansas – For the first time this season, (10/9) K-State was unable to hold a halftime lead, as Kansasused a late fourth quarter rally to down the Wildcats, 58-55, on Sunday afternoon at Allen Fieldhouse.
K-State (23-5, 12-4 Big 12) featured two players in double figures on Sunday and were led by Ayoka Lee with a team-high 14 points, 11 rebounds, equaled her career-high with four assists, three blocks and two steals. This was her 57th career double-double improving upon her own school record.
Joining Lee in double figures was freshman guard Taryn Sides with a career-high 11 points off the bench, including a 3-of-5 effort from long range.
Kansas (16-11, 9-7) was led by freshman S'Mya Nichols with a game-high 22 points, while Taiyanna Jackson added 11 points, eight blocks and seven rebounds and Holly Kersgieter tallied 10 points and seven rebounds.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- K-State trailed by as much as 11, 17-6, in the first quarter but used a 22-5 run spanning the end of the first quarter and midway through the second quarter to build a 28-22 lead with 4:44 remaining in the frame. Lee and Taryn Sides scored all eight of their points during the run.
- The Wildcats would hold a 30-28 edge at halftime, limiting the Jayhawks to 37.9 percent (11-of-29) from the field in the half including 25.0 percent (4-of-16) in the second quarter. K-State fell to 18-1 this season when leading at the break.
- K-State took a seven-point lead, 37-30, with 6:37 remaining in the third quarter, as Lee finished a layup. Kansas would pull in front by one, 42-41, briefly as Eliza Maupin finished a layup in the paint to give the Wildcats a 43-42 leading entering the fourth quarter.
- The Wildcats would pull in front by four, 49-45, as Lee found Brylee Glenn on a baseline cut for a reverse layup with 6:12 to play in the fourth quarter. The Jayhawks would square the game at 51 with 3:38 after a pair of layups.
- Kansas used an 11-4 run to close out the fourth quarter, cashing in three of four free throws in the final 48 seconds.
- After Kersgieter made 1-of-2 free throws with 24 seconds left, K-State's Sides buried her third 3-pointer of the day with 12 seconds remaining to bring K-State to within three.
- Following a Kansas timeout to advance the ball, K-State was able to secure a jump ball on the sideline to regain possession with 10 seconds left. The ball would find Sides for a game-tying three-pointer, but her attempt from 28 feet spun around and out as time expired.
- K-State shot 41.4 percent from the field (24-of-58) including 36.4 percent (4-of-11) from long range. The Wildcats were just 3-of-5 from the free throw line.
- Kansas shot 43.1 percent (22-of-51) from the field, including 45.5 percent (5-of-11) from 3-point range. The Jayhawks shot 75.0 percent (9-of-12) from the foul line.
QUICK FACTS
- K-State leads the series, 80-51. The Wildcats are 33-29 against the Jayhawks in games played in Lawrence. Head coach Jeff Mittie is 20-10 in his career against Kansas, including a 17-5 mark during his time at K-State.
- The Wildcats are 231-241 (.489) in Big 12 games.
- Head coach Jeff Mittie owns a career record of 641-367 (.636) in 32 seasons as a head coach and is 187-132 (.586) during his 10-seasons at K-State.
- K-State owns a record of 245-92 (.727) as an AP ranked team. K-State is 13-5 (.722) all-time when ranked 10th in the nation.
TEAM NOTES
- K-State's starting five consisted of guards: Jaelyn Glenn, Serena Sundell, Brylee Glenn, Gabby Gregory and center Ayoka Lee. This was the 21st time this starting five has been used this season. This was the 108th career start for Lee, the 106th collegiate career start and the 60th start at K-State for Gregory, the 97th career start for Sundell, the 93rd career start for Jaelyn Glenn and the 87th career start for Brylee Glenn.
- The Wildcats held a 30-28 lead at halftime on Sunday. Under head coach Jeff Mittie, K-State is 147-18 (.891) when leading at halftime, including an 18-1 record this season.
- K-State shot 50.0 percent or better in a quarter once on Sunday, the first quarter. This season, the Wildcats have 39 quarters with a field goal percentage of 50.0 percent or better.
- K-State is 47-32 (.595) in games decided by five points or less in the last 12 seasons, including a 5-3 (.625) record this season.
- The Wildcats tallied a 38-26 advantage in points in the paint. This was K-State's 22nd game with 30 or more points in the paint. This is the fourth season under Mittie, and the third straight season, in which K-State has recorded 1,000 or more points in the paint (1,060).
PLAYER NOTES
- Lee recorded her 99th career game with 10 or more points. Lee has scored in every game of her career (108 games). Lee's career total stands at 2,085 and ranks fourth in school history. Lee needs 72 points to pass Brittany Chambers (2009-13; 2,156) for third on the K-State career scoring list.
- Lee hauled in 11 rebounds on Sunday. Lee's career total for rebounds stands at 1,063, second in school history. She needs 25 rebounds to pass Kendra Wecker (2001-05; 1,087) for the school record for career rebounds. This was Lee's 58th career game with 10 or more rebounds and her 99th career game with five or more rebounds.
- Lee improved her career blocked shot total to 296, improving her school record for career blocked shots. This was Lee's 79th career game with two or more blocked shots. Lee ranks eighth all-time in Big 12 history for career blocked shots.
- Sides tallied her third career game in double figures and her first in Big 12 play.
- Her three connections from 3-point range tied her career-high. This was her seventh game this season with two or more 3-pointers made.
FROM THE HEAD COACH
K-State Head Coach Jeff Mittie
Opening statement…
"I thought Kansas outplayed us down the stretch, you know, tight ballgame all the way around. They executed their stuff better than we did. They did a real good job of disrupting some things for us and we didn't play with as much poise as we needed to play with and just didn't feel like we really, offensively, had many options with the exception of Lee and we've got to get better play there from our roster right now because we're just not getting enough from from the roster."
On Ayoka Lee's health…
"I think it's a couple of things. One, she hadn't had a lot of reps you know, it wasn't the type injury that you're able to get a lot of reps so no, I mean, no, I think it's going to take her a couple of weeks, to get the feel around the rim. All those things are just tough. When you can't simulate it and you're also trained and rested. It's not something that she can bang on all the time right now. She's only five and a half weeks, maybe after the surgery. She's a little limited there and yet, I thought she fought through some fatigue. I thought she's getting closer but no, not 100% right now."
On the team learning to play with Ayoka again…
"I think there's always a part of that. You always hear the examples of the NBA when there's trades or whatever. And obviously that's a new player coming in. She's not a new player to us. But I think timing of her post ups. I think her getting back into getting her timing. I think just takes some time and I don't know how long. Hopefully, sooner than later."
On the late game execution…
"We had a couple of things that we wanted to run that did not get executed well at all. And that was a critical stretch because we needed to get her (Lee) some rest, she had been in there a while and needed to buy a couple minutes. We just didn't execute very well. We have to be better than that. That's the bottom line. We have got to be better now. We have got to play with more poise, and I didn't like us today in that area."
On offensive production…
"I think there's a couple of things. One, there's being aggressive and always being a threat and then there's just participating in the game. And there were points of this game where I felt like offensively it just looked like we were just moving the ball around the perimeter and not making things real hard for Kansas. And so we've got to get our players more aggressive and more of a threat offensively and I've got to look at what we got to do to get that better. Now part of that I do think is the adjustment with Lee and we tend to throw it in there and watch her. And we have got to fix that."
On the play of Taryn Sides…
"You play better you get more time. It's not a real complicated formula. You know I've been saying this for a couple of weeks, and she's been really practicing well. So this isn't just coming in the last couple of games where she's got extended minutes. We've been seeing it in practice, games, we weren't necessarily having that carryover. Now what I think she's doing is it looks good when she makes shots, but I can point to things in this game that she was doing well without the ball going in. I thought she had a good pace in transition. I thought she really moved the ball well to the right player. I thought it was a good performance by her."
On recent road struggles…
"We're not playing with the same poise. We're not playing with the same level of freedom. It feels like we're maybe trying to do too much. I think a good example of that is fouling with 45 seconds to go when we're only down three, right? You're trying to do too much. We had Serena foul on that offensive rebound as well. So I mean, trying to do too much. Trying to overthink things a little bit. We've been in a lot of tight ballgames. We should have confidence you don't win them all. But we've won a lot of close ballgames. But we'll get it figured out. We've got a good group. This is a tough one to swallow because we had some good things going but it's hard. The league's good. Kansas is good. They played as good a schedule as anybody. They took some lumps during that schedule, but they've got a really good team. They've been playing good basketball. I thought they did some good things today. This was just a good hard fought game."
UP NEXT
K-State concludes its regular season home schedule on Wednesday, as the Wildcats host Iowa State at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday's game is Senior Night, as K-State will honor its seniors in a postgame ceremony. For tickets, call (800) 221-CATS, visit kstatesports.com/tickets, stop by the K-State Athletics Ticket Office in Bramlage Coliseum or use the ticket option in the K-State Sports app.
Wednesday's game can be seen on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ and can be heard on the K-State Sports Network including the flagship stations Sunny 102.5 FM and 1350 KMAN, online at kstatesports.com, or on the K-State Sports app. The game will also be available on SiriusXM on channels 158 or 199 and on the SiriusXM app.
K-State (23-5, 12-4 Big 12) featured two players in double figures on Sunday and were led by Ayoka Lee with a team-high 14 points, 11 rebounds, equaled her career-high with four assists, three blocks and two steals. This was her 57th career double-double improving upon her own school record.
Joining Lee in double figures was freshman guard Taryn Sides with a career-high 11 points off the bench, including a 3-of-5 effort from long range.
Kansas (16-11, 9-7) was led by freshman S'Mya Nichols with a game-high 22 points, while Taiyanna Jackson added 11 points, eight blocks and seven rebounds and Holly Kersgieter tallied 10 points and seven rebounds.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- K-State trailed by as much as 11, 17-6, in the first quarter but used a 22-5 run spanning the end of the first quarter and midway through the second quarter to build a 28-22 lead with 4:44 remaining in the frame. Lee and Taryn Sides scored all eight of their points during the run.
- The Wildcats would hold a 30-28 edge at halftime, limiting the Jayhawks to 37.9 percent (11-of-29) from the field in the half including 25.0 percent (4-of-16) in the second quarter. K-State fell to 18-1 this season when leading at the break.
- K-State took a seven-point lead, 37-30, with 6:37 remaining in the third quarter, as Lee finished a layup. Kansas would pull in front by one, 42-41, briefly as Eliza Maupin finished a layup in the paint to give the Wildcats a 43-42 leading entering the fourth quarter.
- The Wildcats would pull in front by four, 49-45, as Lee found Brylee Glenn on a baseline cut for a reverse layup with 6:12 to play in the fourth quarter. The Jayhawks would square the game at 51 with 3:38 after a pair of layups.
- Kansas used an 11-4 run to close out the fourth quarter, cashing in three of four free throws in the final 48 seconds.
- After Kersgieter made 1-of-2 free throws with 24 seconds left, K-State's Sides buried her third 3-pointer of the day with 12 seconds remaining to bring K-State to within three.
- Following a Kansas timeout to advance the ball, K-State was able to secure a jump ball on the sideline to regain possession with 10 seconds left. The ball would find Sides for a game-tying three-pointer, but her attempt from 28 feet spun around and out as time expired.
- K-State shot 41.4 percent from the field (24-of-58) including 36.4 percent (4-of-11) from long range. The Wildcats were just 3-of-5 from the free throw line.
- Kansas shot 43.1 percent (22-of-51) from the field, including 45.5 percent (5-of-11) from 3-point range. The Jayhawks shot 75.0 percent (9-of-12) from the foul line.
QUICK FACTS
- K-State leads the series, 80-51. The Wildcats are 33-29 against the Jayhawks in games played in Lawrence. Head coach Jeff Mittie is 20-10 in his career against Kansas, including a 17-5 mark during his time at K-State.
- The Wildcats are 231-241 (.489) in Big 12 games.
- Head coach Jeff Mittie owns a career record of 641-367 (.636) in 32 seasons as a head coach and is 187-132 (.586) during his 10-seasons at K-State.
- K-State owns a record of 245-92 (.727) as an AP ranked team. K-State is 13-5 (.722) all-time when ranked 10th in the nation.
TEAM NOTES
- K-State's starting five consisted of guards: Jaelyn Glenn, Serena Sundell, Brylee Glenn, Gabby Gregory and center Ayoka Lee. This was the 21st time this starting five has been used this season. This was the 108th career start for Lee, the 106th collegiate career start and the 60th start at K-State for Gregory, the 97th career start for Sundell, the 93rd career start for Jaelyn Glenn and the 87th career start for Brylee Glenn.
- The Wildcats held a 30-28 lead at halftime on Sunday. Under head coach Jeff Mittie, K-State is 147-18 (.891) when leading at halftime, including an 18-1 record this season.
- K-State shot 50.0 percent or better in a quarter once on Sunday, the first quarter. This season, the Wildcats have 39 quarters with a field goal percentage of 50.0 percent or better.
- K-State is 47-32 (.595) in games decided by five points or less in the last 12 seasons, including a 5-3 (.625) record this season.
- The Wildcats tallied a 38-26 advantage in points in the paint. This was K-State's 22nd game with 30 or more points in the paint. This is the fourth season under Mittie, and the third straight season, in which K-State has recorded 1,000 or more points in the paint (1,060).
PLAYER NOTES
- Lee recorded her 99th career game with 10 or more points. Lee has scored in every game of her career (108 games). Lee's career total stands at 2,085 and ranks fourth in school history. Lee needs 72 points to pass Brittany Chambers (2009-13; 2,156) for third on the K-State career scoring list.
- Lee hauled in 11 rebounds on Sunday. Lee's career total for rebounds stands at 1,063, second in school history. She needs 25 rebounds to pass Kendra Wecker (2001-05; 1,087) for the school record for career rebounds. This was Lee's 58th career game with 10 or more rebounds and her 99th career game with five or more rebounds.
- Lee improved her career blocked shot total to 296, improving her school record for career blocked shots. This was Lee's 79th career game with two or more blocked shots. Lee ranks eighth all-time in Big 12 history for career blocked shots.
- Sides tallied her third career game in double figures and her first in Big 12 play.
- Her three connections from 3-point range tied her career-high. This was her seventh game this season with two or more 3-pointers made.
FROM THE HEAD COACH
K-State Head Coach Jeff Mittie
Opening statement…
"I thought Kansas outplayed us down the stretch, you know, tight ballgame all the way around. They executed their stuff better than we did. They did a real good job of disrupting some things for us and we didn't play with as much poise as we needed to play with and just didn't feel like we really, offensively, had many options with the exception of Lee and we've got to get better play there from our roster right now because we're just not getting enough from from the roster."
On Ayoka Lee's health…
"I think it's a couple of things. One, she hadn't had a lot of reps you know, it wasn't the type injury that you're able to get a lot of reps so no, I mean, no, I think it's going to take her a couple of weeks, to get the feel around the rim. All those things are just tough. When you can't simulate it and you're also trained and rested. It's not something that she can bang on all the time right now. She's only five and a half weeks, maybe after the surgery. She's a little limited there and yet, I thought she fought through some fatigue. I thought she's getting closer but no, not 100% right now."
On the team learning to play with Ayoka again…
"I think there's always a part of that. You always hear the examples of the NBA when there's trades or whatever. And obviously that's a new player coming in. She's not a new player to us. But I think timing of her post ups. I think her getting back into getting her timing. I think just takes some time and I don't know how long. Hopefully, sooner than later."
On the late game execution…
"We had a couple of things that we wanted to run that did not get executed well at all. And that was a critical stretch because we needed to get her (Lee) some rest, she had been in there a while and needed to buy a couple minutes. We just didn't execute very well. We have to be better than that. That's the bottom line. We have got to be better now. We have got to play with more poise, and I didn't like us today in that area."
On offensive production…
"I think there's a couple of things. One, there's being aggressive and always being a threat and then there's just participating in the game. And there were points of this game where I felt like offensively it just looked like we were just moving the ball around the perimeter and not making things real hard for Kansas. And so we've got to get our players more aggressive and more of a threat offensively and I've got to look at what we got to do to get that better. Now part of that I do think is the adjustment with Lee and we tend to throw it in there and watch her. And we have got to fix that."
On the play of Taryn Sides…
"You play better you get more time. It's not a real complicated formula. You know I've been saying this for a couple of weeks, and she's been really practicing well. So this isn't just coming in the last couple of games where she's got extended minutes. We've been seeing it in practice, games, we weren't necessarily having that carryover. Now what I think she's doing is it looks good when she makes shots, but I can point to things in this game that she was doing well without the ball going in. I thought she had a good pace in transition. I thought she really moved the ball well to the right player. I thought it was a good performance by her."
On recent road struggles…
"We're not playing with the same poise. We're not playing with the same level of freedom. It feels like we're maybe trying to do too much. I think a good example of that is fouling with 45 seconds to go when we're only down three, right? You're trying to do too much. We had Serena foul on that offensive rebound as well. So I mean, trying to do too much. Trying to overthink things a little bit. We've been in a lot of tight ballgames. We should have confidence you don't win them all. But we've won a lot of close ballgames. But we'll get it figured out. We've got a good group. This is a tough one to swallow because we had some good things going but it's hard. The league's good. Kansas is good. They played as good a schedule as anybody. They took some lumps during that schedule, but they've got a really good team. They've been playing good basketball. I thought they did some good things today. This was just a good hard fought game."
UP NEXT
K-State concludes its regular season home schedule on Wednesday, as the Wildcats host Iowa State at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday's game is Senior Night, as K-State will honor its seniors in a postgame ceremony. For tickets, call (800) 221-CATS, visit kstatesports.com/tickets, stop by the K-State Athletics Ticket Office in Bramlage Coliseum or use the ticket option in the K-State Sports app.
Wednesday's game can be seen on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ and can be heard on the K-State Sports Network including the flagship stations Sunny 102.5 FM and 1350 KMAN, online at kstatesports.com, or on the K-State Sports app. The game will also be available on SiriusXM on channels 158 or 199 and on the SiriusXM app.
Team Stats
KState
KU
FG%
.414
.431
3FG%
.364
.455
FT%
.600
.750
RB
33
34
TO
11
11
STL
5
7
Game Leaders
Pts
11
FGM
4
3FGM
3
FTM
0
Pts
9
FGM
4
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Pts
7
FGM
3
3FGM
1
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's BasketballG
/ Women's BasketballG
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