HENDERSON, Nevada – (9/10) K-State faced its first ranked foe of the season in (13/14) Duke during the opening game of the 2024 Ball Dawgs Classic in Lee’s Family Forum. The Wildcats started hot but were unable to hold back the Blue Devils, 73-62, on Monday afternoon.
K-State (5-1) was led by senior center Ayoka Lee with 16 points, while senior guard Serena Sundell added 15 points, four rebounds and four assists. Senior forward Kennedy Taylor came off the bench to chip in with 13 points and eight rebounds.
Duke (6-1) was led by Ashlon Jackson with a career-high 30 points including 6-of-9 shooting from beyond the arc.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- K-State (5-1) dashed out to an 11-0 run to force a Duke timeout with 6:47 to play in the opening quarter. The Blue Devils would go in front, 17-16, with 42 seconds left but a Kennedy Taylor layup with 26 seconds remaining to send the Wildcats to the second quarter with an 18-17 lead.
- Duke (6-1) would use a 12-0 run, highlighted by 10 points from Jackson, to build a 34-28 lead and force a K-State timeout with 3:05 to play. Jackson would give the Blue Devils an eight-point lead, 37-29, with 32 seconds to play but Lee converted a layup with eight seconds to play to bring the Wildcats within six, 37-31, at halftime.
- The Blue Devils used an 8-1 run in the late stages of the third quarter to build a 55-41 lead with 1:45 remaining in the stanza. K-State would bring the margin to 12, 58-46, entering the fourth quarter.
- The Wildcats closed the gap to 10, 58-48, on its opening possession of the fourth quarter, but a 7-2 run highlighted by Jackson’s sixth 3-pointer of the game increased the Blue Devils lead to 65-50 with 7:27 remaining.
- Taylor recorded eight of K-State’s final 10 points to bring the final margin to 11, 73-62, and to win the fourth quarter, 16-15.
- K-State shot 46.3 percent (25-of-54) from the field, which included a 53.8 (14-of-26) effort in the second half but were held to 20.0 percent (2-of-10) from the 3-point line. The Wildcats held the advantage in points in the paint, 42-30.
- Duke shot 43.5 percent (30-of-69) from the field including a 46.7 percent (7-of-15) effort from 3-point range.
- The Wildcats were forced into 18 turnovers, which resulted in a 15-8 edge in points off turnovers for Duke.
QUICK FACTS
- Duke leads the series with K-State, 2-0. The Wildcats are 10-15 against current members of the ACC.
- K-State owns a record of 253-96 (.725) as an AP ranked team. K-State is 15-7 (.682) all-time when ranked 9th in the nation. The Wildcats are 92-243 against teams ranked in the AP poll, including a 20-66 mark under Jeff Mittie. K-State is 4-9 against teams ranked 13th in the AP poll.
- The Wildcats are 7-7 in multi-team events in the Las Vegas-area.
- K-State head coach Jeff Mittie owns a career record of 649-371 (.636) in his 33 seasons as a head coach, including a mark of 195-136 (.589) in his 11 seasons at K-State.
- The Wildcats are 165-55 (.750) in games played in the month of November, including wins in 53 of its last 65 games in the month. Under Mittie, K-State is 51-12 (.8210) in games during the 11th month.
TEAM NOTES
- K-State's starting five consisted of guards: Zyanna Walker, Jaelyn Glenn and Serena Sundell; forward Temira Poindexter and center Ayoka Lee. This was the fifth time this lineup has started together this season. This was the 119th career start for Lee, the 109th career start for Sundell, the 105th career start for Jaelyn Glenn, the 93rd career collegiate start and sixth at K-State for Poindexter and the sixth career start for Walker. With her 119th career start at K-State, Lee remains in 8th in program history for career starts.
- K-State shot 50.0 percent or better in a quarter in the third and fourth quarters. The Wildcats have 12 quarters this season of 50.0 percent or better shooting.
PLAYER NOTES
- Lee needs 48 points to pass Kendra Wecker (2001-05; 2,333 points) for the school record for points in a career. Lee’s career point total stands at 2,286. Lee tallied her 109th career game with 10 or more points. Lee has scored in every game of her career (119 games).
- Lee hauled in four rebounds on Monday. Lee’s career total for rebounds stands at 1,147, improving upon her own school record for career rebounds. Lee is seventh in Big 12 history for career rebounds.
- Lee has shot 50.0 percent or better from the field in 82 career games. With her seven made field goals on Wednesday, Lee improved her career total to 926. She needs 10 made field goals to pass Ohlde for the school record for career field goals made.
- Sundell notched her 75th career game with 10 or more points. Sundell owns 1,328 career points and passed Marlies Gipson (2005-09; 1,313), Angie Finkes (1996-00; 1,314), Gayla Williams (1977-81; 1,320) and Kimberly Dietz (2004-08; 1,321) for 15th on the K-State career scoring list.
- Sundell’s four assists on Monday improved her career total to 576 and she remains in third in school history for career assists. With 14 assists, Sundell will pass Megan Mahoney (2001-05; 589) for second in school history.
- Taylor notched her fourth game this season and the 47th of her career with 10 or more points.
- This was Taylor’s fourth game with season with five or more made field goals.
- Taylor recorded her fifth game this season and the 58th of her career with five or more rebounds.
- With her nine points on Monday, Glenn improved her career total to 914 points. She needs 86 points to become the 46th player in program history to score 1,000 or more career points at K-State.
- Glenn dished out a team-high five assists on Monday. This was the seventh time in her career she has led K-State in assists. This was her eighth career game with five or more assists. Her career assists total stands at 231. She needs three assists to move into 25th in school history for career assists.
- Glenn made a 3-pointer on Monday. She moved into sole possession of 10th on the K-State career 3-point field goals made list (167). She is one of two players (Kendra Wecker) in K-State history with 200 or more steals and 150 or more 3-pointers made.
FROM THE HEAD COACH
K-State Head Coach Jeff Mittie
On the 11-0 start to the game...
"I thought at that time we were obviously getting the ball inside, and our passing was pretty sharp. So obviously the start was great. They cranked up their pressure, and we didn't handle that very well."
On trying to alleviate perimeter pressure...
"We had a lot of things. We've got a lot of stuff in. Once again, for us to take that next step, our guards have to play better against that kind of pressure, and today, and we don't have that downhill, just one-on-one drive so we have to do it with the pass. And I didn't like us in any area."
On turnovers...
"We had travels, we had stuff out of bounds. I mean, we had a lot of things that were just bad offense. We're going to have to take a look at it. I was concerned coming in, we had not faced a team that played this way and not faced it at all. Obviously, we practice against our practice squad, but it's different when the lights are on and things are going and we just didn't handle it very well."
On bouncing back on Wednesday...
"I want to see their response. I want to see for 40 minutes that our guards play the way we need to play going forward. And I say the guards because essentially, we win the post matchup today. Lee and Taylor won that and it's hands down, but they won it at every other spot. We have got to do better in those areas."
UP NEXT
K-State will complete action in the 2024 Ball Dawgs Classic in Henderson, Nevada, on Wednesday at 1 p.m. (CT). K-State will face either (8/9) Oklahoma or DePaul.