K-State prepped for Sweet 16 matchup against No. 1 USC

SPOKANE, Wa. (KCTV) - The Kansas State Wildcats women’s basketball team is in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2002.

Saturday night, No. 5 seed K-State will take on No. 1 Seed USC in Spokane Region 4 for the right to advance to the Elite 8. K-State has only been to the Elite 8 one time in program history (1982).

Ayoka Lee, the Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year, has spent seven years with the Wildcats. She says getting to the Sweet 16 is like a dream come true.

“A lot of gratitude, a lot of joy because it’s hard to get here,” Lee said. “There are only 16 teams left playing in the NCAA tournament. That’s kind of a big deal. We’re one of them. That’s crazy.”

Lee has battled injuries this season. She underwent a minor foot procedure in late February but has returned to action at the NCAA Tournament.

“I hear Yokie say she’s at 100% and I think when she says that she’s mainly saying that she is playing pain-free,” K-State head coach Jeff Mittie said Friday. “We’ve seen her have a good week of practice again. She hasn’t been limited at all in that. She said this before the tournament, and she was right – we have not discussed a minute limitation.”

USC will be without the nation’s second-leading scorer, JuJu Watkins, against the Wildcats. Watkins suffered a torn ACL in USC’s second round game against Mississippi State.

“First off, I would just say you feel bad for JuJu,” Mittie said of the USC star’s injury. “We’ve dealt with it with Ayoka Lee and it’s tough. It’s tough.”

Mittie says a big challenge for K-State is preparing for the Trojans without their best player – who they played through for most of the season. He says he has seen about 100 total video clips with Watkins off the floor for USC.

“In terms of our preparation, it’s a challenge for us because there is going to be an element of the unknown,” said Mittie.

As of Friday evening, oddsmakers say K-State is a 1.5-point underdog against USC.

Copyright 2025 KCTV. All rights reserved.