Praise keeps coming for Kansas State’s Ayoka Lee after record-breaking 61-point game

Ayoka Lee was at the center of the women’s basketball universe when she scored a record-setting 61 points for the Kansas State women’s basketball team during a 94-65 victory over Oklahoma on Sunday.

Everything seemed to revolve her.

Little changed the following day. If anything, Monday was filled with even more national praise for the junior center.

Awards and congratulatory posts on social media came pouring in from all over. The Big 12 honored Lee as the conference’s player of the week. ESPN shared a graphic that pointed out Lee outscored 39 teams all by herself on Sunday. And the K-State athletic department mailed the white jersey she wore during her magical game to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

She made history by scoring more points than any other player previously had in a Division I women’s basketball game. Might as well honor that achievement immediately.

Highlights from K-State women’s basketball games rarely make it onto “SportsCenter” but the Wildcats got all kinds of screen time on ESPN following Lee’s monster game.

Scott Van Pelt dedicated 1 minute, 28 seconds of his Sunday ESPN show to Lee, pointing out how she scored on the Sooners at will and marched her way into the record books.

Her 61 points came on just 30 shots, all within the three-point arc. She made 23 of them and also drained 15 free throws to go along with 12 rebounds and three blocked shots.

The previous NCAA record holder was Cindy Brown of Long Beach State, who scored 60 points in 1987. Lee also broke Brittney Griner’s Big 12 record of 50 points set in a 2013 victory over K-State.

Lee already held the K-State scoring record with her 43-point game earlier this season, which broke Brittany Chambers’ record of 42 set in the 2013 WNIT.

“Coming into this game, I wasn’t like, and I don’t think anyone is like, ‘Oh yeah, we’re just going to set a record today,’” Lee said afterward. “But I think it just goes back to our preparation. This wasn’t an easy scout. You knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but we just executed so well and it started with our defense.”

K-State coach Jeff Mittie wasn’t surprised.

“I think it says a lot about the type of player that she is,” Mittie said, “when she is trying to take charge in a 20-point game late in the game, and still doing the right things defensively and talking and not taking plays off. This is a complete player. We focus sometimes on the offensive end, but she was tasked with defending guards today at the three-point line. Ayoka is the same person good, bad, everyday.”

If anyone doubted Lee’s national player of year candidacy before this weekend, they probably don’t anymore.

It seems like everyone knows about Lee now.