No. 12 Kansas State women’s basketball seniors earned their (sun)flowers on Senior Day, completing the Sunflower Showdown sweep with a 90-60 win over rival Kansas. The Wildcats hosted a sell-out crowd of 11,010 at Bramlage Coliseum on Saturday.

K-State (25-4, 13-3) remained in the fight for the Big 12 title with the win, while the Jayhawks (15-12, 5-11) dropped their fourth Sunflower Showdown of the last five matchups. K-State leads the all-time rivalry series 82-51.

K-State honored seven seniors postgame: Temira Poindexter, Jaelyn Glenn, Serena Sundell, Brylee Glenn, Kennedy Taylor, Ayoka Lee and Gisela Sanchez. Brylee Glenn, Taylor and Sanchez have an extra season of eligibility that can be exercised.

“You don’t want to get too reflective. There’s so much work to do, we have so much basketball ahead of us,” head coach Jeff Mittie said. “But what I’ll just continue to say is this group has been really good to coach. They have continued to raise the standard in what’s expected in the locker room, on the practice floor, expectations for the program. All of the above.”

Sundell, who finished with a school record 15 assists in a single game, stacked the stat sheet with nine points, five rebounds, three steals and a block. It was just another day in the office for the humble star senior.

“I didn’t have anything different I was doing, the game felt really slow today,” Sundell said. “I saw the help rotations slower today, and kind of opened my vision to the court, but nothing in particular (was different). I didn’t even know I had that many assists.”

The Wildcats extended their home court winning streak to 17 games, tied for the fifth-longest home win streak in program history and the second-longest in Bramlage Coliseum.

“We’re so lucky here,” Sundell said. “We have the best fans who sold out Bramlage on senior night, the Sunflower Showdown is such a important game to us. I’ve had an absolute blast my four years here at K-State. I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’ve had the best experience in just this community…it’s just a special place here.”

Leading the scoring for K-State was sophomore Taryn Sides with 15 points off the bench. It was a total-team effort to score 90 points, 43 of which came from the bench. The Wildcats had five in double-figures and shot 53% while KU shot 36.4%.

“I was really pleased with the balance and just the overall contribution that we got from everybody,” Mittie said. “I think we’re a better team when we have this kind of balance.”

Poindexter, a transfer from Tulsa, carded 14 points to trail Sides for the lead. In just one year in Manhattan, she has become a key cog to the Wildcats’ success.

“I wish I would have gotten here earlier,” she said. “K-State is everything to me, just in this one year. I love the team, the fans, coach Mittie. I’m glad he gave me the opportunity to come here, and I’m just so grateful.”

Lee returns from injury

After seeing a month’s absence from the court with a foot fracture, Lee returned just in time for her official last senior day. Lee started the game and and recorded six points on 3-4 shooting with two rebounds in the first half.

However, Lee did not return to start the second half and finished with six minutes. Mittie said her foot was more sore than they anticipated before the game.

“We knew that there we weren’t going to go long, 5-10 minutes,” he said. “It was sore at halftime, and we’re just gonna have to see, hopefully, tomorrow’s better and we’re making that progress.”

How it happened

In a fitting start to the game, Sundell dished out career assist No. 746, many of which have seen Lee on the receiving end. Sundell’s longtime teammate converted at the rim for career point No. 2484.

“Even though she didn’t play very much, just to have it come back to us so naturally, I felt like we didn’t skip a beat,” Sundell said. “So that was reassuring moving forward.”

After that point, Sundell served six total assists in the first quarter, helping lead the Wildcats to a 26-12 first-quarter lead.

“Serena’s got enough vision to see everybody, she’s not a point guard that only gets assist one way,” Mittie said. “…I mean, she gets it every way you can get an assist. And obviously she was able to spread those around today.”

Taylor, who grew up a Kansas fan, torched the Jayhawks for six consecutive points in the second quarter and brought K-State to its largest lead to that point at 34-15. On a step-back buzzer-beater, Sides sent Bramlage into a frenzy and K-State into halftime with a 46-31 lead.

In a half that saw contributors from all around, including nine different K-State scorers, the Wildcats shot 57% on field goals. Sundell only recorded one point but dished out eight of K-State’s 18 assists in the period.

Sides’ sharpshooting continued in the third quarter, knocking down a pair from distance. Sundell added six points of her own in the frame, but it was a late scoring surge by Poindexter that put K-State’s lead over 20 points, leading 66-45 ahead of the final quarter.

In the fourth, Sundell continued to serve her teammates, setting the program record with her 14th assist of the game. She had tied the mark with 13 assists twice.

K-State shot 60% from 3-point land (9-15) in the second half, allowing the Wildcats to out-do their 91-64 win margin in Lawrence at the start of the month.

Two more

Up next is a big-time home finale at Bramlage on Monday, hosting No. 19 Baylor as K-State needs a win to hold onto its hopes for a Big 12 title. Baylor and TCU hold a slight lead on K-State in the conference standings, but play each other to wrap up their seasons.

“I think I would be in full blown tears if this was truly our last game here,” Sundell said. “So knowing we have a big one on Monday is exciting, and then we’re really still hopeful to host. So we’re just going to try to keep winning, and hopefully we get some more crowds like that.”

After Baylor, K-State heads to Iowa State on March 2 to finish the regular season.