LUBBOCK, Texas (KStateSports.com) – (15/14) K-State used a complete team effort to cruise to a 73-49 win over Texas Tech in the regular season Big 12 finale for both teams on Saturday afternoon at United Supermarkets Arena. The win snapped a four-game road skid for the Wildcats and guaranteed K-State a top-3 finish in the Big 12 and a double-bye in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship.
K-State (24-6, 13-5 Big 12) has secured 24 wins this season, the most in the Jeff Mittie era and most by the Wildcats since the 2008-09 season (25).
With its 13th Big 12 win of the season, K-State has secured the program’s most league wins since the 2007-08 season (13). This is the fourth time in K-State women’s basketball history in which the Wildcats have won 13 or more conference games in a season.
The Wildcats featured four players in double figures on Saturday and were led by junior guard Serena Sundell with 13 points, four assists and two rebounds and senior guard Gabby Gregory notched 13 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Junior guard Jaelyn Glenn added 10 points, a team-high seven rebounds, three steals and three assists. This was her 17th career game with 10 or more points, five or more rebounds and two or more steals, including her second straight.
Senior center Ayoka Lee chipped in with 11 points, six rebounds and two blocks. With her two blocks, Lee recorded 300 blocks in her career and is the first player in program history with 300 blocks and the first player with 300 or more blocks and 100 or more steals.
Texas Tech (16-15, 5-13) was paced by Bailey Maupin with 17 points.
HOW IT HAPPENED
– The Wildcats used a 20-3 run midway through the second quarter to build a 34-12 lead with 3:31 remaining. During the run, Brylee Glennscored seven points, Gabby Gregory added six and Jaelyn Glenn notched five.
– K-State would lead by 19 at halftime, 36-17, as the Wildcats shot 50.0 percent (14-of-28) from the field and held Texas Tech to 20.0 percent (5-of-25).
– The Wildcats extended its lead to 20, 54-34, by winning the third quarter, 18-17.
– K-State powered past the Lady Raiders in the fourth quarter, 19-15, as Gisela Sanchez recorded seven points.
– The Wildcats shot 46.7 percent (28-of-60) from the field including 33.3 percent (7-of-21) from long range.
– Texas Tech shot 27.1 percent (13-of-48) from the floor.
QUICK FACTS
– K-State leads the series, 28-17. The Wildcats are 12-9 in games played in Lubbock against the Lady Raiders. Head coach Jeff Mittie is 20-8 in his career against Texas Tech.
– The Wildcats are 231-242 (.489) in Big 12 games.
– Head coach Jeff Mittie owns a career record of 642-368 (.636) in 32 seasons as a head coach and is 188-133 (.586) during his 10-seasons at K-State.
– K-State owns a record of 246-93 (.726) as an AP ranked team. K-State is 11-7 (.611) all-time when ranked 15th 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 23rd time this starting five has been used this season. This was the 110th career start for Lee, the 108th collegiate career start and the 62nd start at K-State for Gregory, the 99th career start for Sundell, the 95th career start for Jaelyn Glenn and the 89th career start for Brylee Glenn.
– The Wildcats held a 36-17 lead at halftime on Saturday. Under head coach Jeff Mittie, K-State is 148-18 (.892) when leading at halftime, including an 19-1 record this season.
– K-State shot 50.0 percent or better in a quarter twice on Saturday. This season, the Wildcats have 41 quarters with a field goal percentage of 50.0 percent or better.
– Wednesday marked the 22nd time (18-4) this season K-State has seen three or more players reach double figures in a game.
– The Wildcats made seven three-point field goals on Saturday afternoon. K-State has made three-pointers this season.
– K-State held a 40-12 advantage in points in the paint on Saturday. This was the 23rd time this season K-State has scored 30 or more points in the paint. This was the 24th time this season K-State has outscored its foe in the lane.
PLAYER NOTES
– Lee recorded her 101st career game with 10 or more points. Lee has scored in every game of her career (110 games). Lee’s career total stands at 2,116 and ranks fourth in school history. Lee needs 41 points to pass Brittany Chambers (2009-13; 2,156) for third on the K-State career scoring list.
– Lee hauled in six rebounds on Saturday. Lee’s career total for rebounds stands at 1,077, second in school history. She needs 11 rebounds to pass Kendra Wecker (2001-05; 1,087) for the school record for career rebounds. This was Lee’s 101st career game with five or more rebounds.
– Lee improved her career blocked shot total to 300, improving her school record for career blocked shots. This was Lee’s 81st career game with two or more blocked shots. Lee ranks tied for seventh all-time in Big 12 history for career blocked shots.
– Gregory registered her 82nd career game, her 41st at K-State and her 12th this season with 10 or more points.
– Gregory made three 3-pointers on Saturday, which is the 67th time in her career with two or more connections from long range.
– Sundell notched her 67th career game with 10 or more points, including her 22nd this season. Sundell owns 1,210 career points and remains 26th on the K-State career scoring list.
– With her scoring output on Saturday, Sundell became the first player in program history and the third in the Big 12 since 2009-10 to register 350 or more points and 150 or more assists.
– Sundell’s four assists on Saturday improved her career total to 520.
– Jaelyn Glenn reached double figures in scoring for the 39th time in her career and the ninth time this season.
– This was Glenn’s 17th career game with 10 or more points, five or more rebounds and two or more steals.
– Jaelyn Glenn pocketed three steals on Saturday. She stands alone in 10th in program history for career steals with 199. This was her 56th career game with two or more steals, including her 18th this season.
– Glenn recorded her 42nd career game with five or more rebounds, including her 14th this season.
FROM THE HEAD COACH
K-State Head Coach Jeff Mittie
Opening statement…
“Good hard fought win for us. We’ve had a lot of tough games where we’ve had a lot of close games. I think a lot of our last nine coming into this had been decided by three or less points or something crazy like that. So this team has been in the war and been in the battle and I think for us it was the third game in six days. Everybody this week plays a lot of games. We obviously had the Sunday game but we knew there’ll be some mental fatigue and I think both teams had to kind of fight through that. Proud of my group for fighting through it. And it was nice to be able to get Lee a little rest in the fourth quarter. We still want to make sure that we’re getting her back as healthy as we can before we get into postseason here.”
On the team’s defense today…
“We really just talked about trying to limit the really good action and we wanted to really try to blow that action up as much as we could early. I thought we did a good solid job with that. And then I thought in our ball screen coverage, we were able to lift them a little bit. And then I think just individual discipline. Now I do think that boy, there were a lot of shots at the end of the shot clock today we exerted a lot of energy on defense I thought, and I am real proud of my group for fighting through that. That’s not easy to do to maintain discipline and you saw it late where they got to the free throw line, but overall really good perimeter defense by us.”
On the guard play…
“I thought in the open floor Serena [Sundell] made some really good reads. I thought Gregory provided some shots early. I liked our guards. I thought our guards played really solid for most of the game.”
On gaining momentum from the win…
“I thought it was critical for us just to get our mojo back a little bit in terms of just not just winning but winning the right way, winning with good defense. Winning with solid offense. And I thought for the most part we did that today. I thought we had a pretty solid attack most of the day. I thought that we got decent performances off the bench it was good for us to see Sanchez play well down the stretch because she has struggled in some games recently. But overall, I think the main thing for us was just that feeling of we haven’t ran away from anybody in a while. And the grind of that I think we just needed a game like this. We needed a game where we put somebody away and we needed a game where we kept them at arm’s length. And our defense did that today.”
UP NEXT
K-State now preps for the 2024 Phillips 66 Big 12 Women’s Basketball Championship in Kansas City. The Wildcats will begin action at T-Mobile Center on Saturday, March 9, with the opponent to be determined.
