MANHATTAN, Kan. -- If someone would have told Kathy McConnell-Miller before Saturday's game at Kansas State that freshman forward Brittany Spears was going to score 16 points and grab eight rebounds, which she did, then the Colorado women's basketball coach would have been very happy.

But Spears took a career-high 19 shots, making six, to get to 16 points. And many times she took tough shots or shots early in the offensive set without looking at other options.

As a result, the Buffs didn't get the ball to their star forward, senior Jackie McFarland, as often as they would have liked and it kept CU from pulling out a much needed Big 12 win. The No. 25 Buffs lost their third in a row, this time falling 67-60 to red-hot Kansas State.

Not that the coach was pinning the loss on her star freshman.

"She's going to learn, as she matures in the game, what's a good shot and what's not a good shot," McConnell-Miller said. "I don't think she has that yet. I like her effort. ... She didn't have a great game and she had 16 and eight. It was probably too many (shots). Some of that was out of frustration or rushing it a bit."

McFarland couldn't be stopped in the first half, making 6-of-8 shots en route to 13 points. She didn't score again until there was less than three minutes remaining in the game and Kansas State had pulled away for good. Four more points at the end of the game gave McFarland20 to go with 11 rebounds.

Time and again the Buffs (12-5, 1-3) tried to take a swipe at Kansas State's confidence. The Wildcats came into the contest having won its first two Big 12 games on the road against South teams and on a six-game win streak overall.

Colorado overcame a 35-31 halftime deficit as Spears and sophomore forward Aija Putnina scored CU's first 14 points of the second half to give CU a 45-41 lead. Putnina finished with 12 points and seven rebounds after struggling in the first half.

But one of Boulder's own, K-State senior guard Kimberly Dietz, did in the Buffs. She hit two of K-State's three consecutive 3-pointers, and then she had two drives where she dished off to teammate Shalee Lehning for easy layups and a 54-49 lead with eight minutes left to play.

It was the beginning of the end for CU, and the Buffs finished themselves off with five consecutive turnovers over the next three minutes to see the game get out of reach trailing 59-49.

Dietz finished with 18 points, five assists, five rebounds and no turnovers in 40 minutes. Lehning nearly had a triple-double with 11 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists.

"We got a little bit shaken there," Dietz said. "But this team, we don't give up. We know we had to get some buckets, and we did."

And it felt good.

"It feels great to beat them," Dietz said. "Maybe it was a little extra special knowing that my family came out and got to see it."

Dietz honored

Dietz was given the game ball by her coach, Deb Patterson, in a pre-game ceremony. The Wildcats honored the Monarch High graduate because Dietz earlier this season became the 33rd player in K-State history to reach the 1,000-point mark.

Also this year, Dietz became the 10th player in K-State history to register at least 1,000 points and 250 assists in a career.

Notable

CU's Hannah Skildum and Lehning locked arms while falling down early in the game and the two collided into Patterson, knocking the coach off her feet like a bowling ball. Skildum and Lehning each received a foul, CU's third double-foul situation in the last two games. ... McFarland moved up to fourth on CU's all-time scoring chart with 1,634 career points. She's third in CU rebounding with 908 boards and second in free throws made with 473. ... The Buffs were 1-of-11 from 3-point range in the first half.

K-State 67, CU 60

COLORADO

FG FT Reb

Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PT

Spears 39 6-19 2-2 2-8 0 3 16

Putnina 26 5-8 2-4 4-7 2 2 12

McFlnd 40 8-11 2-2 2-11 1 3 20

Skildm 29 2-5 0-3 1-1 3 4 4

Powers 35 0-4 0-0 1-5 3 1 0

Smith 9 0-1 0-0 0-1 1 2 0

Hostn 5 1-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 2

Blythe 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Dunn 14 3-5 0-0 2-5 3 1 6

Totals 200 25-54 6-11 12-40 14 16 60

Percentages: FG .463, FT .545.

3-Point Goals: 4-16, .250 (McFarland 2-3, Spears 2-6, Putnina 0-1, Smith 0-1, Powers 0-1, Dunn 0-2, Skildum 0-2).

Team Rebounds: 2.

Blocked Shots: 6 (Putnina 2, Spears 2, Powers, McFarland).

Turnovers: 17 (McFarland 5, Powers 4, Spears 3, Smith 2, Putnina, Dunn, Skildum).

Steals: 3 (Powers 2, McFarland).

Technical Fouls: None.

KANSAS ST.

FG FT Reb

Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PT

Sweat 37 4-11 2-2 0-2 1 3 12

Gipson 33 7-15 0-2 3-4 2 0 14

Lehning 39 5-7 1-2 2-11 8 3 11

Dietz 40 6-13 3-6 0-5 5 1 18

Kincaid 36 2-4 1-2 1-3 3 1 7

Zanotti 5 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 0

Whler 10 2-6 1-2 1-1 0 0 5

Totals 200 26-57 8-16 7-27 20 8 67

Percentages: FG .456, FT .500.

3-Point Goals: 7-15, .467 (Dietz 3-7, Kincaid 2-3, Sweat 2-4, Zanotti 0-1).

Team Rebounds: 1.

Blocked Shots: 3 (Gipson, Sweat, Kincaid).

Turnovers: 6 (Gipson 3, Sweat 2, Lehning).

Steals: 12 (Kincaid 4, Gipson 4, Sweat 2, Dietz, Lehning).

Technical Fouls: None.

Colorado 31 29--60

Kansas St. 35 32--67

A--5,813.

Officials--June Courteau, Michael Price, Bryan Enterline.