MANHATTAN, Kan. — Shortly before Kansas State men’s basketball took the floor against Iowa State on Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum the selection committee for the NCAA Tournament showed the Wildcats a great deal of respect by projecting them as a No. 3 seed in their annual February bracket preview.
K-State lived up to that high praise during a 61-55 victory over the Cyclones.
For the first time in a while, the No. 12 Wildcats (20-7, 8-6 Big 12) got back to playing like one of the best teams in the country as they overcome a cold shooting performance and beat the No. 19 Cyclones (17-9, 8-6) with a sensational defensive effort that made the visiting team look lost every time it possessed the ball in the second half.
Iowa State led 31-23 at halftime but K-State dominated the rest of the way thanks to 20 points from Markquis Nowell, 15 points from Keyontae Johnson and a stifling defensive effort that limited the Cyclones to 0.86 points per possession.
It was a nice bounce-back performance from the Wildcats, who entered this game having lost four of their past five.
K-State will look to continue its winning ways when it returns to action on Tuesday against Baylor. Until then, here are some thoughts on Saturday’s game:
The Wildcats badly needed this win
There is no such thing as a must-win game in February, but this one felt close for the Wildcats.
K-State needed to stop the bleeding from its recent losing skid. Momentum and passion were both starting to disappear from the Wildcats the further away they got from a red hot start that featured an 18-3 record.
With Baylor and a road game against Oklahoma State up next, now was the time to get back in the win column. Not later.
Jerome Tang’s team accomplished that goal and showed some grit and toughness while doing so. K-Sate trailed by double digits in the first half and only made 37.5% of its shots for the game, but it still found a way to escape with a victory.
Things began to shift K-State’s way once it saw a few 3-pointers go down in the second half. Nowell made four shots from beyond the arc on his way to a game-high 20 points and Johnson found his groove with mid-range buckets as the offense began to open up.
On defense, the Wildcats seemed to do everything right and limited the Cyclones to 24 points in the second half. Iowa State only made 30.4% of its shots.
This is something that K-State can build on moving forward. A loss might have been hard for everyone in purple to deal with.
Mixed results from a new starting lineup
Tang made an adjustment to K-State’s starting lineup on Saturday. He went small against the Cyclones and decided to play Nae’Qwan Tomlin at the five while he was surrounded by three guards and Johnson. Desi Sills gave up his customary role as the team’s sixth man and gave the Wildcats an extra guard at the start of the game.
It proved to be a good decision, as it helped the Wildcats end a two-game losing streak.
But K-State was far from perfect in this game, especially on offense.
Ismael Massoud was K-State’s most effective big man, and he came off the bench to score nine points and grab three rebounds. Cam Carter scored six points, which was better than the goose eggs he produced in his past two outings, but didn’t have a great overall game.
Johnson and Nowell got back on track as scorers, though. That was the biggest plus to the lineup change.
Unusual foul proves costly for Kansas State
Most of the time when you see an intentional foul in college basketball it is called when a player is about to get beat for a fast-break bucket. A defensive player grabs the ball-handler from behind and prevents him scoring an easy layup or a dunk. That is how it usually goes.
We saw something different on Saturday.
K-State guard Sills was penalized for an intentional foul when he lowered his shoulder into the chest of Iowa State forward Aljaz Kunc while he was attempting to box out for a rebound. Kunc fell to the ground and the officials awarded him a pair of free throws on top of Iowa State retaining possession.
That led to a four-point play, via two free throws and a jumper, and ultimately a 7-0 run for the Cyclones that broke open a close game.
The home crowd took exception to the call for more reasons than that. Iowa State got away with a physical screen moments before the intentional foul on Sills and players on both teams got chippy afterward. That led to double technical fouls and a long break in action.
It was a costly sequence for the Wildcats in a low-scoring game.
