In the regular season home finale at Bramlage Coliseum, No. 14 Kansas State women’s basketball was outdone by No. 17 Baylor in a 79-62 loss.

“I thought we battled hard. I thought Baylor made critical shots, timely shots,” K-State head coach Jeff Mittie said. “And then when we made a mistake, they made us pay.”

While K-State (25-5, 13-4 Big 12) falls out of conference title considerations, it still has one more regular season game and the Big 12 Tournament to make its case to host the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.

“The sky isn’t falling, this team’s done some really good things,” Mittie said. We’ve played 60% of league play without the Player of the Year preseason [Ayoka Lee]. 17-1 record at home, it feels like you got kicked in the gut tonight because you got beat but we know we have a good team. There’s enough talent in this locker room. There’s enough character in this locker room. We can make a big push here at the end of the year.”

Baylor (25-5, 15-2) became winners of nine straight contests, securing itself in the mix for the Big 12 title with one more game to go.

Coming off a school-record 15-assist game on Saturday, All-Big 12 guard Serena Sundell led the Wildcats in scoring with 20 points on 10-19 shooting. The Bears made it a point of emphasis to turn her into a scorer, as opposed to a combo guard helping in every facet of the game.

“We have to move forward, keep winning, go try to win the Big 12 tournament,” Sundell said. “I think we’re capable. This team is capable of going on runs, and then we’re still in a good spot to host if we can do that.”

Missing Lee-nk

After returning from injury briefly against Kansas on Saturday, All-American center Ayoka Lee was not healthy enough to take the floor against the Bears and proved to be the missing link.

The absence of K-State 6-foot-6 star on offense and defense hurt the Wildcats all contest, especially in guarding 6-foot-3 center Aaronette Vonleh who finished with a game-high 24 points on 10-15 shooting.

Center Kennedy Taylor stepped up at the five for K-State, carding 16 points and 7 rebounds.

“[Taylor had] good activity, I thought she battled Vonhel when she was in there,” Mittie said. “Thought she demanded the basketball, and I thought she played really well.”

Vonleh, a transfer from Colorado, matched up against Lee during K-State’s final loss of the 2023-24 season in the NCAA Tournament Round of 32. Vonleh had nine points and eight rebounds in that game, playing a part in the the last two wins for away teams at Bramlage.

Lee is doubtful to play in the regular season finale, and Mittie did not seem optimistic about the current status of the injury.

“We’ll talk to the doctors here and see where we go from here,” he said. “It’s more sore than we’d like. There’s definitely concern there.”

Home-streak snapped

The Wildcats entered Monday’s game with a 17-game home winning streak, tied for the fifth-longest home-court winning streak in program history and tied for the second-longest at Bramlage. It still marks the fourth straight season with 15 or more home wins.

Over the last two seasons, the Wildcats are 33-3 in Bramlage with losses against Baylor, Iowa State and Colorado. If the Wildcats do not host the NCAA Tournament first weekend, they’ll finish with a mark of 17-1 at home this season.

“This team doesn’t like to lose, and especially don’t like to lose on our own court,” Sundell said.

How it happened

The Wildcats couldn’t rhythm offensively in either of the first two quarters. It culminated toward the end of the period as the Wildcats went with a field goal for the final five-plus minutes, heading into halftime with a 36-26 deficit.

Each team shot 40% on field goals, but the separating factor was success from beyond the arc. Baylor caught fire in the second quarter to total six first-half triples while K-State saw just one 3-pointer fall in the frame. K-State finished 2-15 from 3.

“Baylor did a good job of running us off the line, so you got to make contested threes,” Mittie said. “You’ve got to be quick with your ball movement. You have to be on time with it, and you have to be shot ready. And we struggled making shots tonight.”

Sundell led K-State in seemingly every facet in the first half, leading points, rebounds and tying for the most assists. A game removed from Mittie saying K-State is best when they’re balanced in contributions, that seemed to be the message at halftime.

“Sundell is I think arguably, the Player of the Year in our league this year,” Baylor head coach Nicki Collen said. “I think [K-State] at its best when she’s can mix kind of scoring with kicking it out and getting her teammates involved. Today we turned her into, ‘you have to go score,’ And she did. She certainly did. But I thought taking away the three was the most important thing we had to do today.”

Taylor came out of the tunnel and put life into the crowd at Bramlage, grabbing a quick six points and three rebounds in the early moments of the third quarter, cutting the deficit down to four points. After Taylor exited with three fouls, however, K-State’s depth at center was tested without Lee.

“You never like a player that’s playing pretty well to get in foul trouble,” Mittie said. “Especially the one that has the most size to match up with Vonleh.”

Baylor finished the third quarter on top, 56-45, as Vonleh spotted eight points and helped the Bears to five second chance points. The Bears had their highest-scoring stanza in the final 10 minutes, outscoring K-State 23-17 to put away any hope the Wildcats had of a comeback.

Up next

K-State has the rest of the week to regroup before it finishes the season with a trip to Iowa State on Saturday with tip-off at 3 p.m. After that, the Big 12 Tournament kicks off in Kansas City, Missouri at the T-Mobile Center.

The tournament starts on Wednesday, although the Wildcats will likely play on Thursday or Friday for the first time. The top four finishers are guaranteed a two-day bye to Friday, while seeds 5-8 will begin play on Thursday.

“I’m super hopeful that’s not my last time playing in Bramlage,” Sundell said. “Just take care of what we can at the tournament, and I think we’ll be okay.”