Kansas State women’s basketball guard Serena Sundell on NCAA Sweet 16
Kansas State women’s basketball guard talks about breaking the school career assist record and advancing to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16
Provided by NCAA
Buffalo Wild Wings built an entire March Madness advertising campaign a few years ago on overtime games, so it should come as no surprise that when the Kansas State women’s basketball NCAA Tournament matchup with Kentucky on Sunday was tied at the end of regulation it caught the restaurant chain’s attention.
Specifically, it was K-State guard Serena Sundell’s basket in the closing seconds that did the trick.
Not only did Sundell’s short jumper tie the game at 69-69 with 8 seconds on the clock, but it opened the door for a thrilling 80-79 victory that sent the fifth-seeded Wildcats to a 7 p.m. Sweet 16 matchup with No. 1 Southern California this Saturday in Spokane, Washington.
That might be reward enough for the Wildcats, but Buffalo Wild Wings sweetened the deal for Sundell, who got a nice little NIL deal out of it. It came via social media, where Sundell wore a BWW quarter zip and posed behind a kitchen counter loaded with boxes of chicken wings.
“I sent the game to overtime! If you were at Buffalo Wild Wings, you would have seen it on all the TVs. B-Dubs is the official sports bar of March Madness. #BWWpartner,” the caption read.
It has been a dream season so far for K-State (28-7) and specifically Sundell, a first-team Big 12 all-conference pick for the second straight year and an honorable mention All-American to boot. She scored 19 points with 14 assists and two steals against Kentucky, breaking the school career assists record in the process.
Sundell raised her scoring average to 13.9 points per game, second only to center Ayoka Lee’s 15.6, and she now leads the nation in assists at 7.3. With her 14 assists against Kentucky, she now has a school-record 805 for her career, passing Shalee Lehning’s 800 total from 2001-05.
Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on X (formerly Twitter) at @arnegreen.
