Kansas State’s “K-S-U WILDCATS!” chant reverberated from start to finish of K-State’s 81-51 victory over Kansas University Wednesday night.

And the game was played at Allen Fieldhouse.

As has been the recent tradition, Wildcat fans again traveled to Lawrence by the hundreds to watch their women in what has become another home game in the annual Sunflower State Series.

Wednesday’s attendance was officially listed at 4,564, but the fieldhouse seemed to be stuffed with pro-purple fans — who continuously chanted “Purple Power” and held signs that read “Bramlage East.”

“The crowd was incredible,” said KSU coach Deb Patterson, whose team improved to 18-3 overall and 9-1 in the Big 12 Conference. “Our fans show so much appreciation for our ball team.”

The No. 9-ranked Wildcats gave them plenty of reason, winning their sixth straight in the series and third consecutive at Allen Fieldhouse.

Kansas (9-12, 2-8 Big 12) stayed close for the first four minutes, but the Wildcats went on a 20-5 run to take a commanding 28-10 lead with 8:10 to go in the first half.

The Jayhawks cut their deficit to 43-29 at halftime thanks to a 9-3 run by KU’s Erica Hallman, who led the Jayhawks with 14 points, and reserve Kandis Bonner.

“I thought we could do it tonight, but their post players were just too much for us to handle,” said Kansas interim head coach Lynette Woodard, who fell to 1-3 after taking over for KU coach Marian Washington two weeks ago.

Kansas University's Larisha Graves (13) and Lauren Ervin pressure Kansas State's Nicole Ohlde (3). Ohlde scored a game-high 23 points in the Wildcats' 81-51 victory Wednesday night at Allen Fieldhouse.

Wednesday’s game was the first KU-K-State game in which Washington hadn’t coached the Jayhawks since the 1972-73 season.

The game quickly got more out of hand at the start of the second half, thanks to the hands of a trio of in-state players who chose K-State over KU.

KSU’s Nicole Ohlde — the leading scorer in Big 12 games, who led the Wildcats with 23 points Wednesday — scored two baskets to start the second half.

Moundridge’s Laurie Koehn, the Big 12’s leading three-point shooter, knocked down a trey, and Marysville’s Kendra Wecker, the Big 12’s reigning player of the week, converted a layup to put K-State back up, 52-33.

“Nicole had a sparkle in her eye all week,” said Patterson, of her 6-foot-5 senior from Clay Center. “What an incredible sendoff for Nicole in her last time here in this kind of arena.”

But it wasn’t just Ohlde.

Wecker scored 21 points, while Brie Madden added 14 points off the bench and Megan Mahoney scored six points and grabbed 10 rebounds as the Wildcats won their 16th game in their last 17 attempts and tied No. 1 Texas for the Big 12 lead.

Much like in their first meeting with Kansas this season, when the Wildcats won 79-50 Jan. 17 in Manhattan, K-State again shined from the field — shooting 55 percent. Meanwhile, Kansas was just as cold as in the first matchup, shooting 32.1 percent, compared to the 31.6 percent it shot Jan. 17.

While the Wildcats had plenty of production in the post, Kansas had very little and was outscored 38-18 in the paint. Part of the Jayhawks’ problem was that leading scorer Crystal Kemp, who had averaged 13.5 points in her last two matchups against the Wildcats, injured her shooting hand in Wednesday’s shootaround and was ineffective, scoring a season-low three points.

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“We didn’t get anything from our post players,” Woodard said.

Even the fact that Kansas was at full strength this time against K-State didn’t help.

In the Jayhawks’ loss to K-State in Manhattan, Kansas played without two starters, Tamara Ransburg and Larisha Graves, and Bonner — who all sat out while serving a one-game suspension mandated by the Big 12 for their involvement in a fight with Missouri Jan. 10.

The trio tallied 18 points, 10 from Graves.

Hallman echoed Woodard’s sentiment of Kansas’ pregame excitement, but said that K-State talent and teamwork proved to be to much to overcome.

“We were optimistic we thought we could win this game,” said Hallman of KU, which did not score a field goal over the final five minutes. “We knew they were going to bring it. That’s Kansas State, they’ve been bringing it all year.

“They got a lot of weapons, they execute. They’ve been playing together for so long that they have a lot of chemistry. We could learn a few things from them.”

Ervin Update: Talking for the first time since she took a two-day absence from the team for “personal issues” last week, freshman Lauren Ervin said everything was OK.

“Everything is fine now,” said Ervin, who came to KU as one of its most decorated newcomers in the program’s history. “That was a personal hump, personal problems you go through in college, life.”

Ervin, who missed Kansas’ game against Nebraska last Saturday while she served a one-game team suspension, said “everything was back to normal.

“All the staff and teammates, fans, stuff are back on track,” Ervin said. “I’m focused on basketball and school.”