Serena Sundell leads K-State past TCU for first place in Big 12 basketball standings
Serena Sundell didn’t want to lose.
The senior Kansas State guard made that abundantly clear as she went on a scoring spree when her basketball team needed her the most during a battle for Big 12 women’s basketball supremacy on Wednesday at Bramlage Coliseum.
Sundell led K-State to an important 59-50 victory over TCU which gave the No. 10 Wildcats sole possession of first place in the conference standings. She guided her team past the No. 9 Horned Frogs by scoring 27 points, grabbing six rebounds and dishing out four assists.
She was the best player on the floor in a game that also featured TCU superstar Hailey Van Lith.
“Serena just does it all for our team,” K-State guard Jaelyn Glenn said. “She brings a lot of energy to our team and I would say she’s a really reliable player. As you saw, we were just trying to get her the ball every chance we got while she was hot, making great moves.”
K-State (22-2, 10-1 Big 12) trailed at various times throughout the evening and looked to be in trouble when TCU (21-3, 9-2 Big 12) surged ahead 25-19 at halftime. But Sundell wasn’t about to let the Wildcats lose a game of this magnitude. Not when K-State was wearing special white uniforms with pink accents and not when K-State was playing in front of a rowdy home crowd of 7,477.
The veteran guard stepped up her game and made 11 of 21 attempts from the field in a dominant effort that saw her score almost at will in the paint. Her ability to get buckets with post moves hasn’t been needed all that much in the past. But it has taken on extra importance with star center Ayoka Lee sidelined indefinitely with a foot injury.
“It is really fun to score in the post, I will not lie,” Sundell said. “But it’s also a lot of fun to pass out and have my teammates shoot wide open 3s and knock them down. That’s just a tough spot for for the defense to be in.”
Every time the Wildcats needed a big bucket in the second half, K-State coach Jeff Mittie instructed them to play through Sundell, usually in the post. She took advantage by scoring a whopping 23 points after halftime. The Horned Frogs had no answers for her.
“She lived at the rim,” TCU coach Mark Campbell said. “She is a unique basketball player. They kind of use her as a one through four. They use her as a point. Today, they used her at center. She absolutely destroyed us. She just made layup after layup after layup. She had a heck of a game.”
Glenn also came up big for K-State by scoring 14 points.
Combine that with a strong defensive effort, and it was enough for K-State to prevail. The Wildcats held the Horned Frogs to a season-low 50 points on 40% shooting. Nothing came easy for TCU. It committed 17 turnovers.
Most impressive of all, K-State didn’t allow TCU to score during the final 3 minutes, 58 seconds of the fourth quarter.
“Defensively, I was proud of our group,” Mittie said. “We struggled offensively most of the night. Obviously, in the second half I really liked our efficiency numbers. We really played well there, but it was a grinding game. You get some of these, and you have got to find a way to win.”
Sundell put the Wildcats in position to win, then they moved into first place with elite defense.
The road to a Big 12 championship goes through Manhattan.
This story was originally published February 5, 2025 at 9:44 PM with the headline "Serena Sundell leads K-State past TCU for first place in Big 12 basketball standings."