By Kansas State University Athletics
MANHATTAN, Kansas (KStateSports.com) – Despite cold temperatures and an impending winter storm outside, K-State was on fire inside Bramlage Coliseum on Wednesday night as the Wildcats secured a season split for the second straight season against Baylor with an 87-68 win.
K-State (15-11, 4-9 Big 12) shot a season-high 60.4 percent (29-of-48) from the field which included a 71.4 percent (20-of-28) performance on two-point field goals and 45.0 percent (9-of-20) from three-point range.
K-State’s 60.4 percent effort from the field was its highest field goal percentage since carding a 64.9 percent performance against Incarnate Word on Dec. 3, 2019. It was the highest K-State field goal percentage in a Big 12 game since Feb. 11, 2015, against TCU, when the Wildcats shot 63.5 percent.
The 87 points by the Wildcats were the second-most points K-State has scored against Baylor (16-9, 7-6) in the history of the series, trailing the highwater mark of 89 on Jan. 5, 2002.
The Wildcats featured four players in double figures and were led by 2022-23 Drysdale Award candidate Gabby Gregory with her second double-double of the season with 26 points on 8-of-13 shooting and 7-of-8 from the foul line and 10 rebounds. Gregory, recently named a candidate for the Staley Award, completed her stat line with three assists, a steal and a block.
Joining Gregory in double digits was the sophomore trio of Serena Sundell, Brylee Glenn and Jaelyn Glenn. Sundell carded 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting, six assists and five steals.
Brylee Glenn tallied 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting, five rebounds and three assists, while Jaelyn Glenn finished with 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting, six rebounds, four steals and three assists.
HOW IT HAPPENED
– After a first quarter that featured four ties and one lead change, K-State held a 20-18 advantage at the end of the frame. Gregory scored nine of K-State’s points, including the final six Wildcat points of the quarter, while Jaelyn Glenn added six and Brylee Glenn notched five.
– The Wildcats were bolstered in the first quarter with a 54.5 percent (6-of-11) effort from the field including a 55.6 (5-of-9) performance from 3-point range.
– Sundell joined the K-State scoring attack in earnest in the second quarter, as she registered nine points in the frame. Sundell either scored or assisted on six of K-State’s nine made field goals in the quarter.
– The Wildcats outscored Baylor, 22-15, in the second stanza aided by shooting 60.0 percent from the field (9-of-15) and went into the locker room with a 42-33 lead.
– K-State increased its lead to 13, 50-37, with 6:15 remaining in the third quarter. Sundell scored K-State’s first four points of the quarter and was followed by four quick points from Gregory, as she made a layup and then made two free throws in a seven second span, as Sundell stole the Baylor inbound pass following Gregory’s layup.
– Brylee Glenn and Emilee Ebert exchanged layups on four straight possessions for the Wildcats, as K-State built its lead to 58-42 with 3:48 to play in the third quarter.
– K-State entered the fourth quarter with a 67-52 advantage, as they outscored the Bears 25-19 in the third quarter and shot a blistering 81.8 percent (9-of-11) in the frame. This was the second time this season K-State has shot 81.8 percent in a quarter, doing so against Morgan State on Dec. 21.
– A 7-0 run by the Wildcats highlighted by a layup from Gregory and Jaelyn Glenn’s third 3-pointer of the night forced a Baylor timeout with 6:23 remaining in the fourth quarter and the Wildcats leading 76-57.
– K-State would push its advantage to as high as 21 points, 87-66, on a layup from Sundell with 45 seconds remaining
QUICK FACTS
– Baylor leads the series with K-State, 43-11. K-State has won two straight in Manhattan against Baylor. This is K-State’s longest home winning streak against the Bears since a four-game streak that spanned the 1998 to 2006 seasons.
– Kansas State owns a 228-195 record in the month of February including a 31-36 mark in the Jeff Mittie era.
– K-State is 12-3 in games played in Bramlage Coliseum this season. Over the last two seasons, the Wildcats are 26-6 in games played in Bramlage.
TEAM NOTES
– Wednesday’s starting five were Sarah Shematsi, Jaelyn Glenn, Serena Sundell, Brylee Glenn and Gabby Gregory. This was the 13th time this group started a game together this season (6-7). Sundell has started all 59 games in her K-State career. Jaelyn Glenn started her 55th career game and her 24th this season. Brylee Glenn recorded her 50th career start and the 23rd of her career. This was the 68th career start for Gregory and her 22nd at K-State. Shematsi tallied her 22nd career start and her 20th at K-State.
– The Wildcats led at halftime, 42-33. Wednesday marked K-State’s first halftime lead since Jan. 21 against TCU. This was the 12th time this season (12-0) K-State led on the scoreboard after the first 20 minutes. Under head coach Jeff Mittie, K-State is 125-16 when leading at halftime.
– K-State shot 57.7 percent (15-of-26) from the field in the first half, a season-high field goal percentage for any half this season.
– K-State saw three or more players in double figures for points for the 22nd time this season.
– With its 9 three-pointers made on Wednesday night, K-State has made 201 three-pointers this season. This is the third time in the Jeff Mittie era and the first time since 2017-18 that the Wildcats have made 200 or more three-pointers in a season.
– The Wildcats tallied 12 steals on Wednesday. K-State has 10 games with 10 or more steals this season.
PLAYER NOTES
– Gregory recorded her second double-double this season and the third of her career.
– Gregory tallied her 63rd career game in double figures for points and her 22nd at K-State. She has scored in double figures in eight straight games.
– Wednesday was Gregory’s 16th game this season and the 24th of her career with 20 or more points. Gregory leads the Big 12 for games with 20 or more points. With her 16th game with 20 or more points this season, Gregory has tied Ayoka Lee for third in school history for single-season games with 20 or more points.
– Gregory ended the night with three 3-pointers. This was her 19th game this season and the 47th of her career with two or more connections from 3-point range. She improved her season total to 63 connections from beyond the arc. She is the first Wildcat to make 60 or more 3-pointers in a season since Rachel Ranke made 71 in the 2018-19 season.
– Sundell reached double figures in points for the 18th time this season and the 37th time in her career.
– Sundell became the third Wildcat in program history (Shalee Lehning; Megan Mahoney) to register 300 or more career assists (304) by the conclusion of their sophomore season.
– Sundell tied her career-high with five steals. She owns 19 career games with two or more steals, including 10 this season. Over the last three games, Sundell has pocketed 13 steals.
– Jaelyn Glenn scored in double figures for the 19th game this season and the 25th time in her career.
– Jaelyn Glenn notched 3 three-pointers on Wednesday. This was her 18th game this season and the 28th time in her career with two or more connections from 3-point range. For the season, Glenn has made 52 three-pointers which is a new personal single-season high.
– Jaelyn Glenn pulled in six rebounds on Wednesday, her 15th game this season with five or more rebounds and the 25th of her career. Glenn has hauled in five or more rebounds in all 11 games of Big 12 play this season.
– Glenn pocketed
– Brylee Glenn scored in double figures for the 14th time this season and the 24th time in her career.
– For the fourth time this season and the 10th time in her career, Brylee Glenn made two or more 3-point field goals in a game.
– Brylee Glenn hauled in five rebounds. This was her sixth career game and her fourth this season with five or more boards.
– Eliza Maupin recorded her third career game with five or more boards and her first in a Big 12 game.
FROM THE HEAD COACH
K-State Head Coach Jeff Mittie
On shooting 60 percent from the field…
“I thought our ball movement was the best it’s been. We’ve been moving the ball more effectively, we talked about that but I thought we did have a really aggressive mentality, we went to the paint a bunch, we moved the ball, it seemed like, to the right player. When we called things people seem to be on the same page better. I will give our team credit in the sense that they come into practice and work pretty hard. Now there are times when I have to get on them about energy and things and focus, but for the most part, they come there to get better and I think tonight was just an accumulation of them continuing to do things the right way.”
On the team’s defense…
“I saw the team playing faster as the game went on. We did a few things differently. I challenged them. I felt like coming out of the Oklahoma game we lost a lot of one on one matchups. I challenged them before this game to win those one on one matchups and I thought as the game progressed, we were playing faster, we were seeing things better, we were winning some one on one matchups better. So I thought the defense was solid. And then I think that when they made some push at us, a lot of that was the rebounds, certainly early the rebounds were giving us trouble. I think they had five offensive rebounds in the first five minutes of the game and got some threes out of that. But overall I thought the defense was pretty solid. I think one of the things too, I think overall everybody had a good performance and I but Eliza Maupin grew up tonight. And she played harder, she was more active, she was a factor in there. We need her to do that more often because she’s got it in her and it was good to see her play with a lot of confidence tonight.”
On if he expected to geet Eliza Maupin so many minutes…
“I jumped her pretty hard in practice the other day and she responded the right way. Basically told her that it was time, it’s time. She had a little bit of lack of focus going into Oklahoma, carried over to the first practice. I jumped her but she responded the right way. She had a good practice yesterday. My plan was to get her more minutes and I won’t say it was 21. My plan was to try to get her more rotations tonight but she earned probably three or four more rotations because she was so effective.”
On if it feels like everything came together tonight…
“Yeah. I mean, when you have a performance like that you shoot 60% you do some good things, get to the free throw line. Defensively, you feel like you were solid most of the night. As a coach you’re always pleased when the team is able to take a game plan and really build off of it during the game. They were connected. Serena [Sundell] gets the one steal after we score and that’s just her being in the moment playing basketball. And I think some of our players have been overthinking trying to do the right thing all the time, instead of just being in the moment playing. And so I was really pleased because I saw a lot of them do that tonight. I saw Brylee [Glenn] do that in the fourth quarter. I saw Jae [Jaelyn Glenn] do it, we saw Eliza. So we really had a good effort from a lot of people tonight.”
FROM THE FLOOR
GABBY GREGORY, K-STATE SENIOR GUARD
On her run in the first quarter…
“Obviously it was a good start to the game. We’ve got to figure out how to string stops together as well. I think that’s where we are hurt a lot, especially in the second quarter. Like shots going in and then also not getting stops on defense makes for a bad combo.”
On the team’s mindset coming into the game…
“I think obviously that loss, it hurt. Me especially, I was very upset about that loss. But I think our team, I think we’ve done a great job all year. Just kind of turning around. Not so much like letting things carry over but just like okay, we’ve got to get back in, we’ve got to get to work. We know what we need to work on. The nice thing about basketball is it just turns around quick. You’ve got to just think about the next game. So I mean, immediately we come in and we just know we’ve got Baylor next and this is what we have to do. And I think we attacked the game plan perfectly.”
On if they are capable of doing this every game…
“I think we’re fully capable of doing this every night. I mean, this is what we do in practice every day. Like Serena [Sundell] was talking about, the carryover from practice, the way that we’re moving the ball, the way that we’re playing defense and things like that. I mean, to us, it’s just like being able to see it transition into a game. And yeah, I think we could do this every night.”
SERENA SUNDELL, K-STATE SOPHOMORE GUARD
On how this game felt…
“I felt pretty confident today. I was just sticking to our game plan from before the game even started, push it in transition and make reads. We’ve been working on certain drills in practice every single day that is transition, get to your spot in the paint. I know exactly what options I have. So just kind of going through that drill in the back of my mind and seeing it transition into a game is going to help build my confidence up from here.”
On if she knew it could be a special performance…
“I think we just came into the game like Gabby [Gregory] said, moving on from our loss to Oklahoma and just wanting to get back in the winning column. And knowing that we can go out and compete with Baylor and put points up on them and play together well, so I think we’re just excited to get back out on court.”
On if they can do this performance every night…
“I agree, the feeling out on the court is kind of like ‘This is how it should be, this is how it should feel, how we should be playing together.’ And that’s obviously easier said than done, but we know that yes, we can play like that every single night.”
UP NEXT
K-State makes its final trip to the state of Texas this season, as the Wildcats face TCU on Saturday evening at 5 p.m., in Fort Worth. Saturday’s game will air on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ and can be heard on the K-State Sports Network.
