MANHATTAN, Kansas - K-State improved its non-conference home court winning streak to 18 games on Sunday, as the Wildcats saw four of its five starters reach double figures in a 69-57 win over Northern Colorado.
K-State (10-2) secured its 10th win before the end of December for the second straight season and the fourth time in the Jeff Mittie era.
The four-headed attack was led by senior Gabby Gregory with a game-high 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting including 3-of-5 from beyond the arc. She also added nine rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Sophomore Brylee Glenn scored a personal season-high 17 points on 5-of-10 shooting and tied her season-high with six made free throws. Glenn also set a new career-high for steals and equaled the season-high in the Big 12 this season with six steals.
Sophomore Serena Sundell added 12 points, five rebounds, four assists and two blocks, while sophomore Jaelyn Glenn notched 10 points and three assists but was hampered with foul trouble.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- K-State, leading by five at halftime - 41-36, raced out of the locker room to register a 9-2 run and build a 50-38 lead with 6:41 to play in the third quarter.
- The Bears closed to within eight, 52-44, with 3:22 remaining in the third before Gregory took over. Gregory scored K-State's final seven points of the quarter to send the Wildcats into the fourth with a 59-46 lead.
- A layup in the halfcourt from freshman Eliza Maupin and a steal and layup from Brylee Glenn to begin the fourth quarter pushed the Wildcat advantage to 17, 63-46, and forced a Northern Colorado timeout with 7:59 remaining in the frame.
- The Bears were unable to close the gap to the final margin until the final 1:25 of the fourth quarter.
QUICK FACTS
- This was the first meeting between K-State and Northern Colorado.
- The Wildcats are 18-2 all-time against current members of the Big Sky.
- Kansas State owns a 236-102 record in the month of December including a 35-17 mark in the Jeff Mittie era.
- K-State is 372-150 all-time in games played in Bramlage Coliseum. The Wildcats are 218-29 against non-conference opponents in Bramlage, including a 64-48
TEAM NOTES
- Sunday's starting five were Jaelyn Glenn, Serena Sundell, Brylee Glenn, Gabby Gregory and Emilee Ebert. This was the first time this group started a game together this season. This was the eighth different starting lineup combination K-State has used this season.
- For the game, K-State shot 42.3 percent (22-of-52) from the field.
- The Wildcats were 16-of-19 (.842) from the free throw line. This marked the seventh time the top free throw shooting team in the Big 12 has shot 80.0 percent or better from the charity stripe.
- K-State had three or more players in double figures for the 11th time this season (10-1).
- Kansas State pocketed 11 steals on Sunday. This was the fifth time this season K-State carded 10 or more steals in a game.
- K-State blocked five shots on Sunday. This was the fifth time K-State has blocked five or more shots in a game this season.
PLAYER NOTES
- Senior Gabby Gregory tallied her 52nd career game in double figures for points and her 11th at K-State. She secured her eighth game with 20 or more points this season and the 16th in her career.
- Gregory pulled in five or more rebounds for the 32nd time in her career and the eighth time this season. She led K-State on the glass for the sixth time this season.
- Sophomore Brylee Glenn reached double figures for the seventh time this season and the 17th time in her career.
- Brylee Glenn pocketed a career-high six steals on Sunday, her 19th career game with two or more steals and her fifth career game with four or more. Her six steals were the most since Jaelyn Glenn tallied six against Texas Tech on February 5, 2022.
- Sophomore Jaelyn Glenn reached double figures for the ninth time this season and the 16th time in her career.
- Sophomore Serena Sundell notched her 27th career game in double figures for points and her eighth this season.
- With her four assists on Sunday, Sundell passed Diana Miller (1987-91; 236) for 22nd on the K-State career assists list with 238 career assists.
- Sundell was 2-of-2 from the free throw line on Sunday. Sundell has made 21 consecutive free throws this season.
- Senior Emilee Ebert was 4-of-4 from the free throw line on Sunday. Ebert has tied the school record of 38 consecutive free throws made, joining Peyton Williams as the only two players to make 38 straight free throws in school history.
FROM THE HEAD COACH
K-State Head Coach Jeff Mittie
On the key emphasis this week…
"We had a lot of emphasis. I mean, I think in the bigger picture of things we were trained to prepare not just for this particular game, but coming off that, we felt like South Dakota State was more physical than us. I felt defensively we were behind a lot of plays. We did know Northern Colorado was going to challenge us and I think one of the things they gave us was they ran a lot of offense for 25 seconds. You know, the shot clock was a big part of a lot of their shots at the end. So we knew we were gonna get challenged there. I think for the most part, we're pretty good with the exception of the last three or four minutes of the second quarter, defensively. Offensively just continuing to grow together, balance. We knew we were going to face zone today, haven't faced a lot of zone. I just wanted to see us have good balance. The only disappointing thing offensively today was we just missed a lot of easy shots down low. But I liked where we were getting the ball."
On getting turnovers…
"Yeah, I loved Brylee's [Glenn] defense. I love the fact that our group, I felt like was getting better as the game went on. We need to get smarter as games go on. And during games we need to get smarter in terms of what teams are trying to accomplish, what they're running, where I can be aggressive. We need to get shot clock smarter. I thought while we did some good things. They got some rebounds at the end of shot clocks where we should have been better prepared that a shot is going up here. Rebounding concerns me, you know, we're playing a small lineup out there and if we're not getting the scrappy rebound and we're going to have some nights where it's going to cost us."
On Jaelyn Glenn…
"You know I will say this. You know Jay only plays 13 minutes. This is a rare stat on here. I don't know that I've ever seen this. She's a plus 22 and her 13 minutes you know she was playing so well. Foul trouble really hurt her. And where we've got to be better is that I think our late talk really hurt her. And next game it might hurt Brylee and next game it might hurt Gabby [Gregory]. And you don't want to have a player like Jay who was really having a really good game sit with foul trouble. So we've got to collectively correct that because well that's a huge number 20 plus 22 in 13 minutes of play. So she had a good look to her. So hopefully we can learn from that and make sure that fouls aren't hurting us because rotation hurt us."
FROM THE FLOOR
BRYLEE GLENN, SOPHOMORE GUARD
On what worked when stepping in for Jaelyn [Glenn]…
"I knew on defense that I wanted to help us pick it up a little bit. They had gotten some pretty easy shots so I just wanted to take it upon myself to jump those gaps and get those easy points off turnovers and that's what I did."
GABBY GREGORY, SENIOR GUARD
On adjustments after halftime…
"Coach Mittie talked a lot about not letting them do what they want to do, we needed to dictate more. We were slow on a lot of switches and we weren't talking as well as we should have been talking. Coming out of halftime we really emphasized talking as much as possible and I think we were way more connected coming into that third quarter especially on defense. On offense we were trying to get stops and push the ball in transition and get into our offense quickly, just moving the ball and playing together."
UP NEXT
K-State completes its 2022-23 non-conference regular season schedule on Wednesday, as the Wildcats welcome Morgan State to Bramlage Coliseum for an 11 a.m., tip. For tickets, call (800) 221-CATS or visit kstatesports.com. Wednesday's game will air on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.