K-State almost let its chance at winning its 10th Commerce Bank Wildcat Classic slip through its fingers Saturday afternoon against UTEP.

But the Wildcats went on a late run to secure a 66-58 win over the Miners and their 200th win in Bramlage Coliseum.

K-State jumped out to a 17-10 lead with an 11-3 run opened by a 3-pointer from Kimberly Dietz. The Wildcats followed with a 13-2 run to take a 30-15 lead over the Miners.

The Miners went on a late run as the first half was coming to a close to pull within 11 points of the K-State lead at 40-29.

UTEP took the lead away from the Wildcats with a 16-0 lead to open the second half led by seven points from Jareica Hughes. K?State coach Deb Patterson said she should have called a timeout earlier during the run.

"I let us play through too many minutes of adjustments that we needed to make on the defensive end," Patterson said. "Then it was carrying over offensively. We were timid offensively, they started to get a little bit of confidence, and made a couple of very tough shots."

The Wildcats took the lead back with Shalee Lehning's first points of the game with 9:14 remaining. K-State continued with its scoring en route to a 16-2 run to answer the Miners' earlier run and took a 56-47 lead.

UTEP would pull within two points after a 3-pointer by Hughes with 4:32 left in the game, but the Wildcats hung on to pull out the victory.

"We still saw a little spurt from our team today where the other personality jumped up and got us," Patterson said. "We were a little passive in the beginning of the second half, and that almost bit us. We've got to learn to be a little more consistent, and we'll learn from this game."

Ashley Sweat scored 17 points for the Wildcats, and Dietz finished with 14. Lehning recorded a double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds.

K-State won its first round game Friday 92-50 over Lipscomb to advance to the championship round Saturday afternoon.

Each team came out battling back and forth in the first 10 minutes of the game. Patterson substituted the starters out within the first five minutes and went with a second group to get different looks on the floor.

"Our emphasis was to improve our offense, and in my mind, before the game started, I thought I'd give the first group five or six minutes and then put the second group in there and see how we responded throughout the course of the game," Patterson said.

The Bisons stayed close with K-State until the 9:17 mark of the first half when the Wildcats began to pull away. K-State went on an 18-2 run to give them a 32-17 lead.

K-State kept its distance from Lipscomb for the remainder of the first half and held a 45-24 advantage at halftime.

The Wildcats went on a 24-2 run in the second half to put themselves well ahead of the Bisons 73-34. Lehning described the run as "a blast."

"Once we established some consistency and flow, we were tough to stop," Lehning said. "People were just knocking everything down and getting boards. We were doing things right, and it was neat to see that a hard week of practice paid off like it did tonight."

Kari Kincaid was 4-for-5 from 3-point range in the game and finished with 14 points. Combined with the Michigan State game, Kincaid finished the contest 10-for-13 in 3-pointers in her last two games.

Five Wildcats finished the game in double figures with Kincaid leading the way and Sweat and Jackie Stanley scoring 13. Dietz and Marlies Gipson scored 12 points.