SLATE: Kansas State women beat Oklahoma in Norman for the first time in 16 years

The K-State women’s basketball team continues to be completely inscrutable. The same team which can’t seem to stay within 30 points of Iowa State, which lost a home game against perennial punching bag Kansas, had already beaten Texas this year for the first time in, well, seemingly forever.

Yesterday, they went to Norman. A place where they had not won since 2003, a stretch of eleven straight losses. Admittedly, the Sooners (5-17, 1-10 Big 12) have been hapless this year, and they’d lost nine in a row just this year coming in. But still: 16 years is a long time.

After 42 first-half points and a 13-point lead at the break, Jeff Mittie’s charges held on in the face of a slow, inexorable Sooner comeback and prevailed 83-75. It’s the first series sweep in the books this season for the Wildcats (15-9, 6-6), and their first-ever sweep of the Sooners in Big 12 play. (To be fair, they’ve only been playing the Sooners twice a year in the Big 12 since 2012-13, but let’s not quibble.)

Rachel Ranke not only led the way with 24 points, but scored every single one of those 24 from beyond the arc. The eight three-pointers tied a Sooner record for the most threes given up to a single player in a game at Lloyd Noble Center. Four other Cats landed in double figures: Kayla Goth and Peyton Williams both had double-doubles, Goth with 13 points and 12 assists, Williams with 13 points and 10 boards, Christianna Carr had 15 points, and Jasauen Beard threw in 10 off the bench.

Goth’s effort pushed her past both the 300-point mark and the 150-assist mark on the season for the second year in a row. The only other Wildcat to ever do that was Shalee Lehning, so... yeah, wow.

For the Sooners, a heroic effort by Ana Llanusa was for naught. The sophomore guard poured in 33, and was almost single-handedly responsible for the game’s outcome even starting to appear in doubt.

The mini-streak is probably coming to an end, as the Wildcats host Baylor (21-1, 11-0) on Wednesday. But stranger things have happened this season, and the Cats did stay within 15 in Waco, so we’ll see.

As for the men, we suspect you’re going to have a big surprise this afternoon when the poll comes out. Over the weekend, a lot of you were expecting K-State to either remain unranked or barely sneak into the top 25, but...

Well, here’s Mark Berman of the Roanoke Times, who didn’t have K-State ranked at all last week and now has them at #14. And then there’s Josh Vitale of the Montgomery Advertiser, who we’re absolutely positive some of you blasted on Twitter for dropping the Cats after beating Oklahoma State last weekend... who apparently took heed and put K-State back on his ballot at #17, one spot ahead of Kansas.

There’s a few other ballots lurking about out there early this morning, all of which seem to have the good guys somewhere between 20-24. But it’s obvious some voters really took notice of the Kansas and Baylor wins, and aim to make recompense for their prior misdeeds.

Randy Peterson of the Des Moines Register says K-State, not Kansas, is the hunted party now.

At CBB Today, our pal Matt Zemek focuses on Bruce Weber and vindication.

In football news, we have some good and some bad. The good: Charlie Dickey has found gainful employment. The bad: it’s in Stillwater, reports Robert Allen of GoPokes. Gundy tweeted that this wasn’t the first time he’d tried to hire Dickey, but loyalty kept him in Manhattan.

Tennis: K-State (3-2) has still never beaten Rice (4-2). The Cats fell 6-1 Sunday in Houston.

Golf: Ella Adams is the focus of today’s Sports Extra.