MANHATTAN, Kan. – (13/12) K-State held off a late third quarter and early fourth quarter rally by Cincinnati in the Big 12 opener on Sunday afternoon to secure a 76-59 win at Bramlage Coliseum.
K-State improved its record to 13-1 for the second time under the direction of head coach Jeff Mittie. This is the second straight season K-State has opened with a 13-1 record. In its history, K-State has opened a season 13-1 or better six times.
The Wildcats saw four players reach double figures on Sunday, led by senior guard/forward Temira Poindexter with a game-high 23 points, including 19 in the second half, on 9-of-12 shooting, including 4-of-7 from long range. The product of Sapulpa, Oklahoma, added four rebounds and three assists to her final line.
Senior guard Jaelyn Glenn paced the Wildcats in the first half with 11 points and tallied three rebounds, two assists and two steals. With her effort on Sunday, Glenn improved her career points total to 997. With three points, Glenn will become the fifth player in program history and first since 2009 (Shalee Lehning) with 1,000 or more points, 500 or more rebounds, 250 or more assists and 225 or more steals.
Senior guard and All-America candidate Serena Sundell tallied her fourth double-double this season and the sixth of her career as she carded 11 points, 11 assists, six rebounds and a blocked shot. This was her 53rd career game with 10 or more points and five or more assists.
Senior center Ayoka Lee added 10 points, six rebounds and a season-high five blocked shots. With her five blocks, Lee moved into sole possession of fourth on the Big 12 career blocks list.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- K-State (13-1, 1-0 Big 12) used an 11-2 run to close out the first quarter with a 14-8 lead. Glenn started the run with a 3-pointer from the top of the key. Kennedy Taylor then added a layup and was followed by a Taryn Sides baseline drive and layup. Eliza Maupin capped the quarter with four points.
- The Wildcats continued its run into the second quarter, as Glenn tallied five of K-State’s first nine points in the second quarter including a 3-pointer on a fastbreak to force a Bearcats’ timeout with 7:25 remaining in the second frame.
- Cincinnati (8-3, 0-1) closed to within eight, 28-20, with 2:56 remaining in the second quarter but Glenn knocked down her third 3-pointer of the first half and was followed by three free throws from Sundell and a buzzer beating hook shot from Lee to give the Wildcats a 36-24 lead at halftime.
- K-State raced out of halftime with a 19-1 run to build a 55-25 lead with 4:27 remaining in the third quarter. Poindexter tallied 10 points during the run.
- After going without a field goal for the first eight minutes of the quarter, Cincinnati piled up 13 points on five made field goals in the last two minutes to pull within 19, 57-38, entering the fourth quarter.
- The Bearcats scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter to pull within 11, 57-46, and force a K-State timeout with 8:08 remaining. Poindexter and Lee would outscore the Bearcats by themselves over the next four minutes, 12-3, to increase the K-State lead back to 20, 69-49, and keeping Cincinnati at arm’s length the rest of the way.
- K-State shot 50.0 percent (29-of-58) from the field, including 52.9 percent (9-of-17) from the 3-point line. The Wildcats recorded 27 assists on the 29 made field goals, an assisted shot rate of 93.1 percent.
QUICK FACTS
- K-State leads the series with Cincinnati, 2-0. The Wildcats are 233-242 (.491) in Big 12 games. Head coach Jeff Mittie is 6-1 (.857) in his career against Cincinnati.
- K-State is 406-156 (.722) in its 37-season history inside Bramlage Coliseum, including a 10-0 record this season. This is the 34th season in program history with 10 or more home wins in a season, including the 26th season at Bramlage Coliseum.
- K-State head coach Jeff Mittie owns a career record of 657-371 (.639), including a mark of 203-136 (.599).
- K-State owns a record of 261-96 (.731) as an AP ranked team. K-State is 23-3 (.885) all-time when ranked 13th in the nation.
- The Wildcats are 251-103 (.709) in games played in the month of December, including an active 14-game winning streak dating back to the start of December 2023. Under Mittie, K-State is 50-18 (.735) in games during the 12th month.
- Sunday’s crowd of 7,700 was a season-high in Bramlage.
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 12th time this lineup has started together this season. This was the 126th career start for Lee, the 117th career start for Sundell, the 113th career start for Jaelyn Glenn, the 101st career collegiate start and 13th at K-State for Poindexter and the 14th career start for Walker. With her 126th career start at K-State, Lee remains in fourth in program history for career starts. With her 117th career start, Sundell is tied for 10th in program history for career starts.
- The Wildcats held a 36-24 lead at halftime on Sunday. Under Mittie, K-State is 162-19 (.895) when leading at halftime. The Wildcats have led at the half in 12 games this season (12-0).
- K-State improves to 57-3 (.950) over the last four seasons when holding foes to 60 points or less.
- K-State has scored 20-or more points in a quarter 34 times this season, including the second and third quarters on Sunday. Since the start of the quarter-system in 2015-16, the Wildcats are 145-62 (.700) when scoring 20 or more points in any quarter of a game.
- K-State shot 50.0 percent or better in a quarter in two quarters on Sunday (third and fourth quarters). The Wildcats have 35 quarters this season of 50.0 percent or better shooting.
- K-State improved to 103-8 (.928) when handing out 20 or more assists in a game. The Wildcats have dished out 20 or more assists in 11 games this season (11-0).
PLAYER NOTES
- With her 11 points on Sunday, Glenn improved her career total to 997 points. She needs three points to become the 46th player in program history to score 1,000 or more career points at K-State. This was her 46th career game with 10 or more points.
- This was Glenn’s 56th career game with two or more connections from long range. She boosted her career total to 184 and ranks ninth in school history for career 3-point field goals made.
- Glenn pulled in three rebounds on Sunday and improved her career total to 530 and is tied for 28th on the K-State career rebounds list with Beth Boggs (1976-79; 530).
- Glenn pocketed two steals on Sunday. This was her 66th career game with two or more steals. She improved her career total to 227 and is tied for sixth in school history for career steals with Kendra Wecker (2001-05; 227).
- Sundell notched her 81st career game with 10 or more points. Sundell owns 1,440 career points and remains in 14th on the K-State career scoring list.
- Sundell’s 11 assists on Sunday improved her career total to 648. This was her eighth career game with 10 or more assists and her 76th career game with five or more assists.
- Sundell hauled in six rebounds on Sunday to improve her career total to 479. This was her 46th career game with five or more rebounds.
- With her 23 points on Sunday, Poindexter increased her collegiate point total to 1,728 points (1,560 at Tulsa; 178 at K-State). Poindexter carded her 38th career game with 20 or more points, including her second this season. This was her 88th career game and her eighth this season with 10 or more points.
- Poindexter made four 3-pointers on Sunday. This was her 18th career game with four or more made 3-pointers and was her 62nd career game with two or more connections.
- With her 10 points on Wednesday, Lee boosted her career total to 2,402 and remains in eighth on the Big 12 career scoring list. Lee registered her 115th career game with 10 or more points. Lee has scored in every game of her career,126 games, and is tied for third with Nicole Ohlde (2000-04; 126) for most consecutive games scoring.
- Lee hauled in six rebounds on Sunday. Lee’s career total for rebounds stands at 1,194, improving upon her own school record for career rebounds. Lee is seventh in Big 12 history for career rebounds. She owns 109 career games with five or more rebounds.
- Lee registered five blocks on Sunday and boosted her career total to 330. Lee moved into fourth in Big 12 history for career blocks, passing Lanay Montgomery of West Virginia (2014-17; 330). This was her 22nd career game with five or more blocks, her 33rd career game with four or more blocks and her 87th career game with two or more blocks.
FROM THE HEAD COACH
K-State Head Coach Jeff Mittie
On the first Big 12 conference game of the season…
“Well, I thought their pace once again, you know, they wanted to slow it down. And I think that that is something we've got to learn to deal with because of our scoring ability. And you know, if teams are going to do that now, you know, we need to make sure that we understand that a 12 or 15 point lead is a good lead as long as we're playing good basketball, because it's going to be hard for them to come back. But if we stop playing good basketball, you can see where a 30 point lead can turn into 11 point lead and we stopped playing good basketball but if we had kept playing good basketball, that 30 point lead was huge, right? And proud of our group for regrouping, you know, we had a good answer out of there. [Ayoka] Lee got a couple deep posts, we got the ball to her with good timing. [Temira] Poindexter was able to get some run outs and a big three. So, you know, proud of our response after that.”
On Temira Pointdexter’s performance in front of a large crowd…
“Well, I hope we have, if she'll play like that, we need to keep those crowds up. You know, she came here, I think, for a reason and it's good for her to have that, you know, experience. And it was a good crowd, I thought it would be a good crowd. I thought there were a lot of things going for us, and that, obviously, when you look at not a lot on TV, sports wise today, Chiefs played yesterday. We've got a good Sunday afternoon. We haven't been home for a week or two, so I wasn't surprised by the crowd, I thought we had a good one today.”
On mental mistakes moving forward…
“They concern me going forward, but we haven't had many of them. But, certainly, as I look at this film, I'll make some notes, and make sure that we don't have these and or limit them. I need to. We had them at both ends, sloppy at the offensive end, not very good possessions, defensive end breakdowns. And when you have it at both ends, you can give up a run like that.”
On Ayoka Lee’s struggles early…
“We felt like that early she wasn't getting a deep enough position. We didn't feel like Cincinnati was doing anything. I think she got a little frustrated when she did get them deep, we missed her and I felt like then she took herself out of some plays. And their physicality, they were committed to being physical with her, but Lee's used to that. I just didn't think she handled it as well in that stretch, as she normally does.”
On the team’s production…
“Well, we've been saying this for a while, I think all of our players have scoring ability. I think offensively, we've been a pretty efficient offense. What gave us trouble today was lack of focus that led to turnovers and I thought shots that we normally don't take. It's one of the few times all year that we've gone into halftime and said, ‘wow, we've taken some interesting shots out there.’ Generally, this team has really made the right play a lot and taken really, really good shots, today we were a little bit scattered with that.”
FROM THE FLOOR
TEMIRA POINDEXTER, SENIOR GUARD
On playing in her first Big 12 conference game…
“I thought it was fun. I mean, we started off a little rough, but I feel like we came back together as a team very well.”
On this game being one of her best games this season…
“I mean, offensively, maybe, but I feel like I've definitely had better games defensively.”
On being part of the game plan to get out in the zone so much…
“I think it just worked out that way, just the pace that we were playing at.”
On playing in front of a crowd of 7,000 fans…
“I thought it was fun. I personally have never played in front of a crowd as big, so I thought it was just a fun environment to be in.”
On if playing like this is what she envisioned when she chose K-State…
“It was definitely like a hope of mine and I feel like I'm very grateful for this opportunity to just be out here and play in front of the fans and with my teammates. Yeah, I'm just very grateful, honestly.”
On what she was thinking after shooting that final three-pointer…
“I'm just like, I don't know how I'm so open right now, but thank you.”
On what she remembers about previously playing Cincinnati while at Tulsa…
“Just that they're very aggressive, very all up in your stuff and they like to, like talk chippy. So I mean, that's just what I remember and that was kind of the same thing they were doing out here.”
On what her favorite way to score is…
“Definitely, probably just shooting threes. Getting three’s balls up, I like shooting threes.”
On the entire team being able to score early in the second half…
“I just think that shows how talented our team is and that we have a lot of pieces to our puzzle. You know, somebody can have an off game, but I feel like we have pieces there to carry their weight.”
JAELYN GLENN, SENIOR GUARD
On the start of the second half being a bit of a rollercoaster…
“I would say it can be a little bit discouraging, but as a team, I think we really just stayed together and kind of just wanted to fight back on that. Play your butt off on defense and we knew that they were going to hit tough shots, which they did, but defending the ball as best we could and then taking away like straight line drives. Yeah and then we just live with them hitting tough shots.”
On what coach Mittie said in the early timeout in the 4th quarter…
“Kind of just, we need to pick up our effort a little bit better. Yeah, really just that and everyone else agreed, so that's, what we went out and did after that timeout. Yeah, getting the ball inside, flipping it quicker, moving it faster, yeah. And then, like I said, just playing better on defense.”
On playing in front of a crowd of 7,000 fans…
“Yeah, I thought it was a great turnout. I definitely wasn't expecting that, just with it being Christmas break and everything. But yeah, I was super excited to play in front of them and it was a lot of fun.”
On what an asset Temira Poindexter is to the team…
“She's been a huge asset, just getting out and running, getting us fast break points, being able to shoot the ball at a high level, attacking the basket aggressively. Yeah, I feel like she's brought three different levels of scoring. So she's been a huge asset to us, which I'm super excited about.”
UP NEXT
Following a break for the holidays, K-State returns to action on Wednesday, January 1 at Houston. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.