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No. 14 Kansas State (25-5, 13-4 Big 12) lost its final home game of the season to the No. 17 Baylor Bears. The top-25 matchup was crucial for both teams’ hopes in the Big 12 regular season race, but the Wildcats' failure to win has knocked K-State out of contention. K-State started slow and could not keep up with the Bears. Baylor would go on to handle the Wildcats in seven seniors last home regular season game, 79-62.
K-State was faced with a tall task, as Ayoka Lee was sidelined again just a few days after returning to face Kansas last Saturday. The Bears forced K-State out of their comfort zone, causing the Wildcats to have 18 turnovers and shoot just 13 percent from deep. Despite an efficient night scoring for Serena Sundell, 20 points, the turnover bug found her and caused seven. Kennedy Taylor despite playing limited minutes (18 minutes) with foul trouble put up a season-high 16 points in the loss.
Wildcat Warm-Up
Opponent Matchup
No. 17 Baylor (25-5, 15-2) came into Bramlage with an eight-game winning streak and left with nine. During that nine-game stretch, Baylor has now defeated K-State, Iowa State, West Virginia, and BYU. The Bears are one of the hottest teams in the country. Baylor is a very mature squad, starting four seniors, and a skilled team with four players averaging double figures. Baylor, a very physical squad, disrupted K-State’s spacing, forced turnovers, and controlled K-State’s three-ball.
Tip-Off to Buzzer
Quarter Breakdowns
First Quarter-
Both squads' slow offensive in the first quarter saw limited scoring. Baylor, however, quickly found Aaronette Vonleh for 10 in her six minutes of play in the first. K-State could not control the inside and was forced into a zone, which the Bears capitalized on with two threes to lead 16-10.
Second Quarter-
Baylor would continue their hot three-point shooting against the Wildcat zone, knocking down four more in this quarter. K-State would find themselves with 10 turnovers and just one three after the first 20 minutes of play. Sundell would lead K-State at the half with eight points. K-State only shot 10-25 (40 percent) from the field to trail Baylor at half 36-26.
Third Quarter-
K-State found a little gasp of life out of halftime, cutting the lead down to four, 43-39, with just over four minutes left in the quarter. Baylor quickly responded with an 11-2 run of their own to put K-State back in catch-up mode. The Wildcats would end up going into the final quarter trailing by 11, 56-45.
Fourth Quarter-
Sundell showed life with an early layup in the fourth that was answered by a 5-0 Baylor run. K-State then would go on a four-minute shooting drought to be trailing by 19 with just three minutes left. The Wildcats' perfect home record would end as Baylor won, 79-62.
Courtside Conclusions
Despite dropping a crucial game in the Big 12 race, K-State seems to keep the next-game mentality. The Wildcats know they have a lot of basketball left to play, and it all is determined by how they play. Head coach Jeff Mittie shared his thoughts after the game.
"Look, the sky is not falling," Mittie said. “This team has done some really good things. Played 60 percent of league play without the Player of the Year Preseason, 17-1 record at home. It feels like you got kicked in the gut tonight because you got beat. My message was look you know we have a good team, there’s enough talent in this locker room, enough character, we can make a big push here at the end of the year.”
Sundell was asked how K-State will adjust their goals after being knocked out of contention for the Big 12 regular season championship.
"I think we just got to move forward,” Sundell said. "Keep winning, go try to win the Big 12 tournament. I think we are capable, I think this team is capable of going on runs. If we do that then we are in a good spot to host, and still have a lot of things wrote down at the beginning of the season to accomplish.”
Taylor coming off her big night described how she felt K-State played the tough loss to a red-hot team.
"I feel like we played hard and I don’t feel like we gave up,” Taylor said. "I feel like we gave everything we needed to give in this game today.”
Future Focus
A Look Ahead at the K-State Schedule
K-State will have one final regular season game before post season play begins. K-State will travel to take on Iowa State in Ames, Iowa for their final game. K-State defeated the Cyclones earlier in the year in overtime in Bramlage. Despite losing to Baylor, another Quad 1 win for K-State is available with the matchup on Sunday. K-State is looking to host the NCAA tournament for the second year in a row, and needs a win in Ames and a good Big 12 tournament to secure that spot. The game against Iowa State and games in the Big 12 tournament will be live here on Wildcat 91.9.
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