Kansas State University Athletics
Quickly Onto the Next
Mar 07, 2025 | Women's Basketball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Moments after No. 5 seed Kansas State took care of No. 13 seed UCF 80-65 for the right to face No. 4 seed West Virginia in Friday's quarterfinals at the Big 12 Championships, K-State head coach Jeff Mittie was asked whether he believed that the Wildcats had done enough to be picked as one of the top 16 overall seeds in the NCAA Tournament.
Being one of the top 16 seeds is a big deal. It would enable the Wildcats to host the first two rounds of the tournament in Manhattan like they did a year ago.
K-State, 26-6, finished with a 13-5 record in the Big 12 and is ranked 20th in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll. It was slated at No. 9 in the NCAA's NET ranking released earlier this week.
K-State's win over the Knights snapped a two-game skid against No. 17 Baylor (79-62) and at Iowa State (85-63) to end the regular season. The Wildcats have played 10 of their last 11 games without two-time All-American center Ayoka Lee, the Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year, who is recovering from a fractured foot.
"I think that honestly we're a challenge for the (NCAA Tournament) committee," Mittie said. "We need to do everything we can to make it easy on them. Obviously, we're playing without the Preseason Big 12 Player of the Year. We only lost one game with her. But you know what? This team won a lot of games without her. We need to do everything we can to make it easy and the teams that are going to be left (Friday) are going to be playing for a Big 12 Championship, so that's our focus."
K-State and West Virginia will tip off at 11:00 a.m. at T-Mobile Center, which Thursday morning featured a largely purple contingent as All-Big 12 First Team guard Serena Sundell and the Wildcats showed they have plenty left in the tank.
Sundell had a game high-tying 21 points on 9-of-17 shooting and added four rebounds and four assists, leading three others in double digits. Sophomore guard Zyanna Walker scored 13 points, senior guard Jaelyn Glenn added 11 and senior forward Kennedy Taylor 10 for the Wildcats, who outshot UCF 53% to 39% and held a 36-35 edge on the boards.
UCF, which suffered a 97-67 loss to K-State in Manhattan on February 15, finished its season with a 12-18 record.
For K-State, it's on to the next one.
"It's a quick turnaround but it's that time of year," Sundell said. "It's fun basketball. We want to survive and advance at this point in the year, but know that we have a really good opponent. (West Virginia) has a lot of girls that (we've) seen now for a few years. We have a good idea what they're going to bring to the table, and we need to go out and execute and take care of the ball."
West Virginia, 23-6, went 13-5 in the league, and has won two straight against Utah (75-46) and at Cincinnati (85-69) since suffering a loss at No. 10 TCU (71-50) on February 23.
Six days prior, the Mountaineers and All-Big 12 First Team senior guard JJ Quinerly stunned the Wildcats in Morgantown, West Virginia. Quinerly scored a game-high 26 points — her 11th 20-point game of the season — while All-Big 12 Third Team junior guard Jordan Harrison added 18 points, and the Mountaineers held the Wildcats to just 57 points, well below their average of 81.3 points per contest. The Wildcats also committed a season-high 21 turnovers.
West Virginia finished the regular season with the best defense in the Big 12, leading the league in allowing just 54.4 points while averaging 14.2 steals and recording a plus-8.76 turnover margin.
Quinerly earned Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year honors for a second straight year and All-Big 12 First Team honors for a third straight time.
"I'm a big JJ Quinerly fan most of the year but not (Friday)," Mittie said. "We know she's talented and playing extremely well. She was one of those four or five players who was up for MVP of the league. I thought she had that kind of year. We'll do everything we can to keep her in front and make things hard on her, but a player like her – she's obviously talented – so it's not going to be a one-player assignment for us. It's been the strength of our defense that we have enough players that we can rotate, and she's certainly one that will challenge that."
K-State did a good job slowing down on UCF as the Wildcats took a 41-30 halftime lead and Sundell and Co. took care of the rest. The Wildcats got points from across the board — something every head coach likes to see — before Sundell, who scored two points in the first half, erupted with 19 points in the second half, including 12 points in the fourth quarter.
While Sundell enjoyed her 95th career game with 10 or more points, her four assists gave her 773 for her career to push her to sixth all-time in Big 12 history.
"I saw better fight in the team in the second half through some of the struggles that — we had trouble guarding them off the bounce, and we needed to get better at that as the game went on," said Mittie, who improved to 5-0 against UCF. "In the fourth quarter, we did a better job of that. I was pleased with the responses today coming out of timeouts. We responded better today.
"I'll go back to it wasn't just one player. We had more players. You look at the balance of our offense today. Imani Lester (a career-high eight points) and Kennedy Taylor (10) gave us big lifts at the center spot. Taryn Sides (eight points with two 3-pointers) — we were a better team today with Taryn and Zy Walker (13) on the floor together. They played very well together. I liked our response."
Now it's time for K-State to respond with some revenge against a tough West Virginia squad while trying to make the decision easy for the NCAA Selection Committee to select the Wildcats as a top 16 overall seed in the tournament.
"Right after that last game (at Iowa State) we said, 'OK, it's a new season. Everyone is 0-0. So, anybody can come in and take any game,'" Sundell said. "Knowing that each game could be your last, hopefully not, but you need to have that mindset every possession and every play. Just enjoy the little moments and celebrate them, because they could end up being a big deal at the end."
Moments after No. 5 seed Kansas State took care of No. 13 seed UCF 80-65 for the right to face No. 4 seed West Virginia in Friday's quarterfinals at the Big 12 Championships, K-State head coach Jeff Mittie was asked whether he believed that the Wildcats had done enough to be picked as one of the top 16 overall seeds in the NCAA Tournament.
Being one of the top 16 seeds is a big deal. It would enable the Wildcats to host the first two rounds of the tournament in Manhattan like they did a year ago.
K-State, 26-6, finished with a 13-5 record in the Big 12 and is ranked 20th in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll. It was slated at No. 9 in the NCAA's NET ranking released earlier this week.
K-State's win over the Knights snapped a two-game skid against No. 17 Baylor (79-62) and at Iowa State (85-63) to end the regular season. The Wildcats have played 10 of their last 11 games without two-time All-American center Ayoka Lee, the Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year, who is recovering from a fractured foot.
"I think that honestly we're a challenge for the (NCAA Tournament) committee," Mittie said. "We need to do everything we can to make it easy on them. Obviously, we're playing without the Preseason Big 12 Player of the Year. We only lost one game with her. But you know what? This team won a lot of games without her. We need to do everything we can to make it easy and the teams that are going to be left (Friday) are going to be playing for a Big 12 Championship, so that's our focus."
K-State and West Virginia will tip off at 11:00 a.m. at T-Mobile Center, which Thursday morning featured a largely purple contingent as All-Big 12 First Team guard Serena Sundell and the Wildcats showed they have plenty left in the tank.
Sundell had a game high-tying 21 points on 9-of-17 shooting and added four rebounds and four assists, leading three others in double digits. Sophomore guard Zyanna Walker scored 13 points, senior guard Jaelyn Glenn added 11 and senior forward Kennedy Taylor 10 for the Wildcats, who outshot UCF 53% to 39% and held a 36-35 edge on the boards.
UCF, which suffered a 97-67 loss to K-State in Manhattan on February 15, finished its season with a 12-18 record.
For K-State, it's on to the next one.
"It's a quick turnaround but it's that time of year," Sundell said. "It's fun basketball. We want to survive and advance at this point in the year, but know that we have a really good opponent. (West Virginia) has a lot of girls that (we've) seen now for a few years. We have a good idea what they're going to bring to the table, and we need to go out and execute and take care of the ball."
West Virginia, 23-6, went 13-5 in the league, and has won two straight against Utah (75-46) and at Cincinnati (85-69) since suffering a loss at No. 10 TCU (71-50) on February 23.
Six days prior, the Mountaineers and All-Big 12 First Team senior guard JJ Quinerly stunned the Wildcats in Morgantown, West Virginia. Quinerly scored a game-high 26 points — her 11th 20-point game of the season — while All-Big 12 Third Team junior guard Jordan Harrison added 18 points, and the Mountaineers held the Wildcats to just 57 points, well below their average of 81.3 points per contest. The Wildcats also committed a season-high 21 turnovers.
West Virginia finished the regular season with the best defense in the Big 12, leading the league in allowing just 54.4 points while averaging 14.2 steals and recording a plus-8.76 turnover margin.
Quinerly earned Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year honors for a second straight year and All-Big 12 First Team honors for a third straight time.
"I'm a big JJ Quinerly fan most of the year but not (Friday)," Mittie said. "We know she's talented and playing extremely well. She was one of those four or five players who was up for MVP of the league. I thought she had that kind of year. We'll do everything we can to keep her in front and make things hard on her, but a player like her – she's obviously talented – so it's not going to be a one-player assignment for us. It's been the strength of our defense that we have enough players that we can rotate, and she's certainly one that will challenge that."
K-State did a good job slowing down on UCF as the Wildcats took a 41-30 halftime lead and Sundell and Co. took care of the rest. The Wildcats got points from across the board — something every head coach likes to see — before Sundell, who scored two points in the first half, erupted with 19 points in the second half, including 12 points in the fourth quarter.
While Sundell enjoyed her 95th career game with 10 or more points, her four assists gave her 773 for her career to push her to sixth all-time in Big 12 history.
"I saw better fight in the team in the second half through some of the struggles that — we had trouble guarding them off the bounce, and we needed to get better at that as the game went on," said Mittie, who improved to 5-0 against UCF. "In the fourth quarter, we did a better job of that. I was pleased with the responses today coming out of timeouts. We responded better today.
"I'll go back to it wasn't just one player. We had more players. You look at the balance of our offense today. Imani Lester (a career-high eight points) and Kennedy Taylor (10) gave us big lifts at the center spot. Taryn Sides (eight points with two 3-pointers) — we were a better team today with Taryn and Zy Walker (13) on the floor together. They played very well together. I liked our response."
Now it's time for K-State to respond with some revenge against a tough West Virginia squad while trying to make the decision easy for the NCAA Selection Committee to select the Wildcats as a top 16 overall seed in the tournament.
"Right after that last game (at Iowa State) we said, 'OK, it's a new season. Everyone is 0-0. So, anybody can come in and take any game,'" Sundell said. "Knowing that each game could be your last, hopefully not, but you need to have that mindset every possession and every play. Just enjoy the little moments and celebrate them, because they could end up being a big deal at the end."
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