MANHATTAN, Kansas (KStateSports.com) – (13/16) K-State scored a season-high in a complete team effort on Wednesday night in Bramlage Coliseum, as the Wildcats downed McNeese State, 101-39.
The 101 points are the most for the Wildcats since scoring 103 against Central Arkansas on November 9, 2021. K-State achieved season-highs for points in the second (28), third (30) and fourth quarters (25), while shooting 54 percent or better in the final three frames.
The Wildcats saw four in double figures, led by senior Gabby Gregory with a game-high 16 points on 5-of-11 shooting. With a layup in the third quarter, Gregory reached the 1,500-point mark in her collegiate career and owns 1,504 points including 719 at K-State.
Joining Gregory in double figures was senior center Ayoka Lee with 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting, six rebounds, three assists and two blocks in 18 minutes of action.
Redshirt junior Gisela Sanchez, facing five of her fellow Spanish countrywomen, notched 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting, eight rebounds, a career-high four blocks, two assists and a steal.
Junior guard Brylee Glenn added 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting and a season-high five steals.
HOW IT HAPPENED
– K-State (8-1) equaled its season-high for a first half, holding a 46-16 lead at the end of the opening 20 minutes.
– The Wildcats registered a season-high 28 points in the second quarter, shooting 54.5 percent (12-of-22) from the field.
– In the second quarter, Brylee Glenn and Gregory scored 18 of K-State’s first 20 points in the frame, with each player scoring nine points. Glenn would score 11 points in the second stanza.
– The Wildcats shot 64.7 percent (11-of-17) in the third quarter to build its advantage to 48-points, 76-28, as Ja’Mia Harris connected on a three-pointer to beat the end of quarter buzzer and cap a 30-point stanza.
– In the final quarter, K-State tallied a 62.5 percent (10-of-16) effort from the field to notch 25 points in the frame and surpass the 100-point mark on an Eliza Maupin offensive rebound and layup.
– For the night, K-State shot 51.9 percent (40-of-77). This marked the first time since November 26, 2004, that K-State made 40 or more field goals in a game.
QUICK FACTS
– K-State and McNeese State met for the first time in the series. The Wildcats are 11-1 against current members of the Southland Conference.
– K-State head coach Jeff Mittie owns a career record of 626-363 (.633) and is 172-128 (.573) during his 10-seasons at K-State.
– K-State owns a record of 384-154 (.714) during its 36-seasons in Bramlage Coliseum. Head coach Jeff Mittie is 114-46 (.713) in home games with the Wildcats.
– K-State has won 25 straight non-conference home games dating back to December of 2020. Kansas State is 225-29 (.886) against non-conference foes, while Mittie is 71-8 (.899).
– K-State owns a record of 230-88 (.723) as an AP ranked team. K-State is 14-3 (.824) all-time when ranked 13th 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 ninth time this starting five has been used this season. This was the 96th career start for Lee, the 87th collegiate career start and the 41st start at K-State for Gregory, the 78th career start for Sundell, the 74th career start for Jaelyn Glenn and the 68th career start for Brylee Glenn.
– The Wildcats held a 46-16 lead at halftime on Wednesday. Under head coach Jeff Mittie, K-State is 136-17 (.889) when leading at halftime, including a 7-0 record this season.
– K-State shot 50.0 percent or better in three quarters on Wednesday night. For the season, K-State owns 14 quarters with a field goal percentage of 50.0 percent or better.
– K-State had four players in double figures on Wednesday, the sixth time this season (5-1) the Wildcats have had three or more players reach double figures in the same game.
– K-State registered a season-high 58 rebounds on Wednesday. This was the most since the Wildcats hauled in 61 rebounds against Northwestern State on November 27, 2021. This is the eighth time K-State has outrebounded its opponent this season (7-1). The Wildcats tallied its largest rebounding margin of the season, +31.
– For the second straight game, K-State registered 20 or more second chance points as the Wildcats held a 21-5 advantage.
– The Wildcats dished out a season-high 29 assists on Wednesday. The 29 helpers were the most since K-State handed out 30 against Incarnate Word on December 3, 2019. When K-State hands out 20 or more assists over the last 16 seasons, the Wildcats are 84-7 (.923).
PLAYER NOTES
– Lee recorded her 88th career game with 10 or more points. Lee has scored in every game of her career (96 games).
– Lee hauled in six rebounds on Wednesday. This was her 88th career game with five or more rebounds and her eighth this season.
– With her two blocks on Wednesday, Lee improved her career total to 253 and ranks third in program history. Lee needs five blocked shots to pass Marlies Gipson (2005-09; 257) for second in school history.
– Gregory tallied her 72nd career game with 10 or more points.
– With her two connections from long range, Gregory notched her 59th career game with two or more 3-pointers in a game.
– With her 11 points on Wednesday, Brylee Glenn carded her second game this season and the 29th of her career in double figures.
– Jaelyn Glenn recorded her 43rd career game and the fifth this season with two or more steals.
– Sundell handed out six assists on Wednesday. With her effort, Sundell became the seventh player in program history with 400 or more career assists and passed Carlisa Thomas (1983-87; 398) for seventh on the K-State career assists list with 401. This was Sundell’s 47th career game with five or more assists.
– Sanchez scored in double figures for the second time this season and the third time in her career. She equaled her career-high in 3-pointers made in a game with two.
– Sanchez hauled in eight rebounds, marking her seventh career game and her sixth this season with five or more rebounds.
FROM THE HEAD COACH
K-State Head Coach Jeff Mittie
On the Wildcats’ dominance…
“I’ll be honest I don’t really like these games. I like them from the standpoint of tonight it was fun to see a lot of players play well. It was fun to see some plays that you could see some growth in. Normally this kind of game gets real sloppy and you’re just like, ‘Ah, just get it over with. We’d get more out of practice’ and that kind of thing. I thought for the most part we were pretty solid. I thought our start was sluggish. Didn’t seem to be locked in. But after that initial quarter, I thought things got really good. It was fun to see [Taryn] Sides really cut loose and play well. That was fun. I thought Brylee Glenn played well. I thought Gabby [Gregory] got it going a little bit. I thought Jaelyn [Glenn] and Serena [Sundell] were pretty consistent. I thought Zy Walker did good things. I mean really everybody on our roster did well that’s the fun part of tonight.”
On the offensive development…
“We’re still a work in progress offensively. There are so many areas that we can continue to improve in. I think that’s kind of our Achilles heel is that we’ll have a quarter where we shoot 30% and it’s one thing to have that quarter because you’re just going to have it but when it’s self-inflicted, that’s more of a problem. I thought tonight was more self-inflicted. Then I thought they really locked in the last three quarters and you can see the results of that and we haven’t done that before with the bench that was really good to see because the bench really there was no drop-off. So that was the part I enjoyed the most.”
On the biggest mismatch in the game…
“Well obviously [Ayoka] Lee draws a lot of attention so you can play off of that kind of mismatch because of the attention that she’s getting. I thought Brylee Glenn really is learning to play off of that with a lot of cutting off of her post-entry stuff. I think we’re learning when she’s drawing that much attention that there are driving lanes that are available because the help is late. One of the things I wanted to do with all the attention was we sent some extra people to the offensive glass because they were using two or three to box her out. We saw some things that were good there. It really starts with Lee because everybody’s going to come into every game and say, this is how we’re going to defend Lee and we need to be able to recognize how they’re defending and we need to be able to recognize what advantages we can utilize.”
On Gabby Gregory reaching 1,500 career points…
“That’s pretty cool. I hadn’t paid attention. I should read Randy’s notes it’s probably in there somewhere. But yeah, that was pretty cool. I thought she had a good look to her tonight and you know, you always want to reach those milestones when you can on a good night not just back into them and tonight was a good night for her.”
On the rivalry matchup vs. Missouri…
“I know we got some Missouri kids. I’m from Missouri. I think it’ll be a fun game. St. Joe is where I went to school. It’s kind of back home for Serena [Sundell]. So there’ll be a lot of storylines to this one that’ll be fun. But ultimately it’ll get down to how we perform and how we play and I’ve been pleased with how this group has responded in preparation, and I would expect we’d have good solid prep tomorrow.”
FROM THE FLOOR
K-State Senior Guard Gabby Gregory
On the team’s performance tonight…
“This was another game where we showed how deep our team is. The bench played really well, and I think that there was no drop off at all. Even when the starters were sitting on the bench for a long time, towards the end of the game it still looked like the same team, and the intensity was super high. People were sharing the ball, we were getting stops on defense,and Gap Goat was going up and down a bunch. I think that just shows how deep of a team we really have and how talented everyone is.”
On reaching 1500 career points tonight…
“It’s pretty cool. I didn’t know I was that close to it. I was surprised when it went up on the big screen, but it’s a cool accomplishment.”
On the journey towards 1500 career points…
“My career has been a little unique, but I think it’s just a good testament to my hard work and things like that. I’ve had the opportunity to play with a lot of really talented players, not just here at K-State, but Oklahoma as well. It’s a great accomplishment and I’m pretty happy about that. [I’m] excited to score some more points throughout the year.”
On the advantage of playing against a younger team…
“Coach Mittie did mention a couple of times that they were young, but I mean, not really. I was just looking at the personnel. We go through a lot of personnel of different people and we usually have our matchups, so I’m just really focused on who I’m guarding and overall how they play together.”
On the offense’s progression recently…
“It’s like a work in progress. I think we get better every day. Coach Mittie says to get energy in the ball, just move and not let the ball stick. I think that every day in practice, and every game that we play we just get a little bit better at it.”
K-State Junior Guard Brylee Glenn
On team dominance tonight…
“I thought it was a lot of fun. It’s always nice to see everyone get involved and everyone get that chance to show what their hard work has gotten them to. It was a lot of fun, especially just seeing everyone being able to score and play together in different groups.”
On what allowed the intensity of the game tonight…
“Just the fact that we didn’t really play by the score. No matter what the score was, we kept running. We kept the same intensity. We kept getting out in transition. We knew that’s what we wanted to do. Just not playing by the score and just playing our game the whole game.”
On achieving over 100 points as a team…
“Yeah, around the five-minute mark in the fourth quarter. We were kind of like sitting there on the bench saying ‘this is doable, like they can do this.’ It was definitely on our minds.”
On focusing towards defensive skills…
“Just keeping them in front of me. We always talked about playing higher and shooting those gaps. When I did get that one steal where I was able to go down the whole court the only thing that was on my mind was that I have to shoot this gap, and I knew she was going to pass it. That’s exactly what I did. Most of the time I just want to keep them in front of me. Keep my hands up so I’m not falling into doing anything like that.”
UP NEXT
K-State will travel to St. Joseph, Missouri, for the inaugural Bill Snyder Basketball Classic, as the Wildcats face Missouri on Saturday at 5 p.m.
Saturday’s game will be streamed on News Press Now and can be heard on the K-State Sports Network, online at kstatesports.com and on the K-State Sports app.
