K-State women use hot start to get past Portland 78-65 in NCAA tourney first round

“I thought we got off to a great start today,” head coach Jeff Mittie said. “I thought our players were playing extremely well. I thought the ball was moving. I thought we were getting the ball to some really, really good spots on the floor.”

Gabby Gregory paced K-State with a season-high 22 points on 7 of 13 shooting.

“She killed it,” said Ayoka Lee, who added 21 points and nine rebounds.

Serena Sundell tallied 16 points and nine assists.

“That was definitely the greatest start we’ve had all season,” Gregory said. “That first quarter was incredible. It felt good, and I was having fun out there.”

Masie Burnham led the Pilots (21-13) with 21 points, and Kianna Hamilton had 12.

The Wildcats shot 51% from the field and made 7 of 16 3-point attempts while adding a further 19 points at the free-throw line. They forced 15 Portland turnovers on eight steals, off of which they scored 24 points.

The Pilots shot 44% but hit just 3 of their 16 tries behind the arc. Their full-court press caused problems for Kansas State, leading to 14 Wildcat turnovers and 15 Portland points off turnovers.

“Portland’s a good team,” Sundell said. “They did a good job of continuing to play through things. Maybe we beat their first trap, but they’re going to try to chase from behind or try to get their hands on the ball. They had some lengthy players, which I haven’t seen a ton of this year. ... They just did not give up.”

The Wildcats outrebounded the Pilots 33-31.

After K-State jumped ahead 9-4, Sundell put up 9 straight points, and Gregory added a layup to help the Wildcats explode out to a 20-4 lead with 4 minutes remaining in the first period.

“(The fast start) was really important because we wanted to come out and have a good first punch,” Lee said. “Down the stretch, when things broke down a little bit, it was even more important because they couldn’t get as close as they could if we didn’t have that.”

Portland ended the run when Emme Shearer made its first basket in more than 5 minutes, and by the end of the quarter, K-State’s advantage was 25-10.

Sundell dropped in her second 3-pointer of the game as part of a 9-4 Wildcat run that gave them their largest lead at 34-14 4 minutes into the second period.

However, the Pilots closed the first half outscoring K-State 14-6 to close their gap to 40-28 at the intermission.

Lee made the first two baskets of the third quarter, but Portland responded with a 9-1 run to get its deficit within single digits at 45-37 for the first time since the Wildcats led 11-4.

Gregory buried her first triple, and Lee later contributed 4 points in a row as K-State went back in front by 14 midway through the period.

The Wildcats led 57-45 at the end of the third.

The two teams traded buckets through the first 5 minutes of the final frame, and then Kennedy Dickie hit a 3-pointer to trim the Pilots’ margin to 66-57.

Lee and Gregory hit back-to-back shots to get K-State’s edge up to 13 again, and Portland never got any closer than 9 the rest of the way.

Up next

The Wildcats will return to action Sunday when they take on fifth-seeded Colorado at 1 p.m. The winner advances on to Albany for the Sweet 16. 

“We’re just going to soak this in for tonight,” junior guard Jaelyn Glenn said. “We’re going to go out and actually watch (the Colorado-Drake) game and do our own scouting a little bit. And then wake up in the morning and get to practice and just focus on what’s next.”

“Celebrate now, but when it comes to tomorrow, we’re ready for the next game,” redshirt freshman guard Zyanna Walker added.