Kansas State Athletics
MANHATTAN, Kansas – K-State, the four-seed in the Albany 2 region, led wire-to-wire on Friday afternoon, as the Wildcats downed Portland, 78-65, in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament at Bramlage Coliseum on Friday afternoon. With Friday's win, K-State has now advanced at least one round in the NCAA Tournament for the 13th time.
K-State (26-7) has secured 26 wins this season, the most in the Jeff Mittie era and most by the Wildcats since the 2002-03 season (29). This is the sixth 26-win or better season in program history.
For the sixth time this season the trio of Gabby Gregory (22 points), Ayoka Lee (21 points) and Serena Sundell (16 points) scored in double figures in the same game. This was the first time Kansas State has had multiple players score 20 or more points in the same NCAA Tournament game since March 19, 2005 against Bowling Green when Kendra Wecker (25) and Laurie Koehn (22) reached the marks.
Gregory scored a season-high 22 points on 7-of-13 shooting, including 3-of-7 from beyond the arc and 5-of-6 from the charity stripe. Her 22 points were a career-high for an NCAA Tournament game.
Lee tallied 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting and a game-high nine rebounds. With her 21 points, Lee scored a career-high for an NCAA Tournament game and notched her second career NCAA Tournament game with 20 or more points.
Sundell carded a career-high for an NCAA Tournament game with 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting including 3-of-4 from long range, dished out nine assists and hauled in five rebounds. Sundell's nine assists were the second-most in a K-State NCAA Tournament game and the most since Shalee Lehning set the school record with 13 against Drexel on March 21, 2009.
Portland (21-13) was paced by Maisie Burnham with 21 points, while Kianna Hamilton-Fisher added 12.