No. 12 Kansas State women’s basketball hit the road for its first ranked Big 12 matchup on the season with No. 22 Utah, and it was still business as usual as the Wildcats dominated with a 71-47 win.

“I was proud of our group for getting off against a really good Utah team,” head coach Jeff Mittie said to K-State Athletics. “We had a good night tonight. I think our group really worked hard to have a good night tonight. So proud of them.”

The win improves K-State’s win streak to 11. The 11-game win streak is tied for the sixth-longest win streak in program history.

K-State improved its overall record to 16-1 for the second time under Mittie. This is the second consecutive season K-State has opened with a 16-1 record. In its history, K-State has opened a season 16-1 or better five times.

Senior center and All-America candidate Ayoka Lee notched 14 points, six rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal. With her 14 points, Lee has moved into the top 100 on the NCAA Division I career scoring list.

The Wildcats put four total in double figures, led by senior guard Serena Sundell with 15 points, five assists and three rebounds. Sundell has handed out five or more assists in 11 straight games.

Senior guard Jaelyn Glenn tallied her first double-double of the season and the fourth of her career with 11 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and two steals. Senior forward Temira Poindexter notched 11 points including 3-of-7 from distance, three rebounds and two assists. 

Starting the game, the ‘Cats went on a quick 9-2 run and remained hot in the first quarter as they got up 18-4 and were 4-4 on their three-point attempts to begin the game. 

“I think that we got off a great start, and I think we wanted to get some things established as best we could,” head coach Jeff Mittie said. 

Poindexter and Glenn made four 3-pointers in the first quarter, each hitting two. After the first quarter, K-State led Utah 20-7. 

The second quarter was a defensive battle between the two teams, however, Sundell was able to create offense by scoring nine of K-State’s 11 points in the quarter. K-State was outscored by Utah but was able to hold them to just 15 points and led at halftime, 31-22.

“This was a physical game,” Mittie said. “Both teams down low. There was a lot of contact down there, but I think we played through it better in the second half than we did in the first half, and I think that was a big key for us.”

After halftime, K-State really started to pour it on as it started clicking on offense again. The Wildcats in the third quarter hit four more triples, two of them from sophomore guard Taryn Sides and then one more each for Poindexter and Glenn.

“Taryn Sides — she had a rough first half — second half, we were able to get her some open looks,” Mitte said. “In games like this, you’re going to have to answer. I don’t think there was any magical thing at halftime that we did.”

For the game, K-State shot 8-17 (47%) from three-point range and 30-61 (49%) from the field. In the third quarter, the Wildcats scored 26 points while holding Utah to just 13 points and led the Utes, 57-35.

Into the fourth quarter, K-State went on another 9-0 run to finish off Utah and put away any chance of a comeback. The fourth quarter proved to be much of the same as K-State provided many challenges for the Utah offense.

K-State held the ranked Utes to 18-60 (30%) from the field and 3-19 (16%) from three. The K-State presence inside forced Utah into a lot of tough layups that it couldn’t connect on. 

“I think our centers just take so much pride in our post-defense,” Lee said on the win. “I think that just didn’t change tonight. We knew they had a good inside game. And we just take, I take a lot of pride in my post-defense, and I know Kennedy [Taylor] and Imani [Lester] do too, and Serena [Sundell] as well, did a great job. So I think it just comes down to our standard in there.”

K-State will stay in Utah this week and travel to Provo, facing BYU on Saturday with tipoff scheduled for 5 p.m.