MORGANTOWN — Playing with two hurt ankles, Kansas State’s dominating center Ayoka Lee still came up with a KO against No. 22 West Virginia inside Bramlage Coliseum on Wednesday.
Shuffling in and out of the game all night, Lee saved her best play at clutch time, as the 10th-ranked Wildcats held off the Mountaineers 73-64 in overtime.
It was WVU guard Jordan Harrison who sent the game into overtime with a coast-to-coast drive in the final seconds.
Her left-handed driving lay-up came at the buzzer to tie the game at 58.
By that time, Lee, who has missed seven games this season due to injuries, was already looking as if her ankles were just fine.
In just 26 minutes of action, the 6-foot-6 star shot 12 of 17 from the field and finished with 34 points and 12 rebounds.
That doesn’t tell the entire story, though. The Mountaineers walked out of the arena a disappointed bunch knowing they had several opportunities with open lay-ups that fell off the rim and 22 missed 3-pointers that could have made a big difference.
In the end, WVU attempted 18 more shots than K-State, yet the Mountaineers were held to just 35.2% shooting.
Which brings us back to Lee. It’s what she did in the fourth quarter and the overtime that mattered most in a battle between the two teams who entered the game tied for second in the Big 12 standings.
With WVU (22-4, 11-4 Big 12) leading 41-35 after three quarters, Lee came in off the bench to score 11 points in the fourth quarter, while also blocking a shot and altering several others.
She made one free throw — the Wildcats killed themselves by going just 19 of 31 from the foul line — with 4.3 seconds left in regulation that gave Kansas State a 58-56 lead.
West Virginia’s Kyah Watson inbounded the ball to Harrison, who went fast down the right side of the court. She drove past Lee at the foul line and then got to the left side of the basket to get off a leaning lay-up over Gabby Gregory at the buzzer.
Aside from Lauren Fields’ 3-pointer with 3:17 left in overtime that tied the game at 62, Harrison’s shot was one of the final bullets WVU had in its pistol.
The Mountaineers missed their next five shots with four of them coming on lay-up attempts.
Lee had her effect on most of those shots, and she added 10 more points in overtime to seal the deal.
WVU shot just 2 for 9 and also had two critical turnovers in the overtime. WVU guard J.J. Quinerly, too, had a tough night shooting. She did score 23 points but made just 9 of 24 shots. Quinerly fouled out with 24 seconds left in overtime.
K-State (23-4, 12-3) remained in second place in the Big 12 and is still tied there with Texas, as both schools are just one game behind Oklahoma in the league standings with three games remaining in the regular season.
West Virginia fell to fourth place and would need a major meltdown from Oklahoma, Texas and K-State at the end of the season to get back into contention for the Big 12 title.
