Kansas State women's basketball holds off a late Kansas charge for 69-61 victory

Kansas State's women's basketball team finally broke into the national rankings, only to suffer two straight losses, but looked to get back on track Wednesday night in the first of two Sunflower Showdown meetings with Kansas.

KU was hoping to do the same after blowing a late lead Sunday in a loss to Baylor.

K-State built a 16-point lead in the fourth quarter, only to see Kansas charge all the way back before the Wildcats regrouped down the stretch to escape with a 69-61 victory at Bramlage Coliseum.

"This game is always an interesting one in that you don't know how you're going to get to the finish line," K-State coach Jeff Mittie said after watching his Wildcats improve to 14-4 overall, 4-2 in the Big 12. "That's, I think, a lot of rivalry games.

"You don't know how the game's going to come out. It's so competitive and so many toughness-type plays, so many physical — bodies on the floor, bodies in the paint. It's just sort of an ugly, grind-it-out game. Can you find enough offense, can you find enough plays to win it?"

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The Wildcats appeared to be in command when Laura Macke's two free throws put them up 54-38 with 5:57 left. That capped a 9-2 K-State run to open the quarter.

But KU stormed back with a 19-3 run to tie it at the 2:45 mark after back-to-back 3-pointers from Aniya Thomas and Holly Kersgieter.

That's when Ayoka Lee went to work for K-State. First she gave the Wildcats the lead back with a hook shot in the lane, and after KU's Ioanna Chatzileonti answered for KU, put the Wildcats in front for good with 2 minutes to go.

Serena Sundell and Emilee Ebert added two free throws each, and Lee tacked on another pair with 40.7 seconds to go to seal it.

"We've got to learn to balance that stretch because you don't want to get passive, but you've also got to make smart, aggressive plays," Mittie said of playing with the big lead. "That's just us as a team.

"Then proud of our group for regrouping, because a lot of times you don't do that.

Yokie really carried us in that stretch — hit two big turnaround shots, tough turnaround shots — against a good defender. And I think we were able to take a deep breath and relax a little bit and finish it off."

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Lee led K-State with 25 points and 15 rebounds, while Sundell had 15 points and seven assists and Jaelyn Glenn 10 points. Macke added nine points and five assists off the bench.

"It definitely means a lot to me," Macke, a senior from Baileyville, said of her final time playing KU at home. "I wanted to come out and bring my best energy, and whether I'm playing good or bad, I was going to make sure that I was working my hardest out there to win that game."

Kansas (11-4, 2-3) got 16 points from Thomas and 14 from Kersgieter. Center Taiyanna Jackson scored just two points but had eight blocked shots.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: K-State women's basketball beats Kansas in Sunflower Showdown, 69-61