It took the best half of basketball in some time to advance, but the Cats found a way.
The 10th-seeded Kansas State Wildcats overcame a 10-point halftime deficit by outscoring 7th-seeded Texas 49-35 in the second half to win 78-74 at the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City.
You read that right. Your Wildcats scored forty-nine points in the second half. Forty. Nine. No, it’s not April Fools Day yet.
K-State (19-13, 8-10 Big 12 Regular Season) has struggled offensively through much of Big 12 play, and it did for stretches of the first half against Texas (20-12, 9-9) at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, as well. The Cats managed only two points in the first 4:18 and trailed 9-2 before staging a 14-3 run to lead 16-12 before the second media break. Another drought followed, as Texas ran off a 14-0 surge to claim a 26-16 advantage.
K-State clawed back within 4, only to see Texas finish the first half on an 8-2 run to lead 39-29 at the break.
Things looked bleak. K-State could not score for long periods of time, and Texas got layups and open jumpers in the lane. Few would have guessed the Wildcats had any chance to come back and win. They looked, frankly, outclassed.
The guys in lavender were not among the doubters, apparently.
The Wildcats played the second half as if their basketball lives depended on excellence. And they delivered it. Forcing the issue in the paint early, they got layups from David N’Guessan and Arthur Kaluma to pull within 6. Then the Cats drew a succession of quick fouls on the Longhorns and (mostly) cashed in at the free throw stripe. After a charity toss by Jerrell Colbert and a second-chance layup by Kaluma off a Texas turnover, the Cats trailed 39-36.
Along with the offensive improvement, K-State shut off driving lanes and forced Texas to take tougher shots after the intermission. The ‘Horns did not make their first field goal until a 3-point jumper by Ithiel Horton dropped almost 4 minutes into the half. That gave Texas a 45-38 advantage, and it appeared the surge of Wildcat energy might have passed.
But the Wildcats kept clawing. Kaluma drove assertively for another layup, and Dai Dai Ames hit a turnaround jumper left of the elbow to get K-State back within three, 45-42. After two Texas free throws, Ames converted a fastbreak layup through contact and made the free throw to make it a 47-45 game.
Tylor Perry buried a deep, high-arcing three to give K-State its first lead since the middle of the first half, and after Texas’s Max Abmas scored at the other end, David N’Guessan answered to forge a 50-49 Wildcat advantage.
K-State would not trail again.
When Carter got fouled on a fast break with 4:02 to play and made 1 of 2 free throws to give the Cats a 67-57 advantage, it felt as if it should have been enough.
Thanks to Abmas, it almost wasn’t. In the last 2:14, the dynamic scoring guard made a three-point bucket, a layup, and two more threes to keep Texas hopes alive. Fortunately, K-State was able to get the ball into the hands of Perry and Carter, who sealed the deal at the free throw line.
The biggest stat of the game is a correction of the biggest problem that has plagued K-State all year. The Wildcats committed only 10 turnovers. And only two of those came in the pivotal second half.
K-State made 25 of 53 shots (47%), including 5 of 13 (38.5%) from three. The winning margin came at the charity stripe, as the Wildcats made 23-31 free throws, compared to an 18-24 showing for Texas. K-State out-rebounded Texas 39-32. Until Abmas’s surge late, Texas struggled from outside, making only 3 of their first 19 attempts and finishing 6-23 (26%).
The Wildcats got 21 points from Perry on 4-10 overall shooting, including 3-4 from three-point range and a perfect 10-10 at the line.
Though Perry had the eye-popping total, a team effort won the game. Kaluma scored 14 and led the team with 8 rebounds. N’Guessan had 13 and 6. Carter scored 10 and grabbed 7 caroms, and Freshman Dai Dai Ames made pivotal plays, scoring all of his 10 points in the second half while also setting up teammates for a team-leading 3 assists.
Abmas led all scorers with 26. Though he seemed unstoppable late, he shot only 9-20 overall and 3-10 from three. Horton (14) and Dillon Mitchell (13) were the only other Longhorns to reach double-digits in what turned out to be the last Big 12 contest for Texas.
Feels pretty good to send Bevo packing from the conference with a loss, doesn’t it?
With the win, K-State keeps its slim chances of an NCAA tournament berth alive for another day. The Cats get a rematch of the season finale tomorrow, taking on the Iowa State Cyclones at 6:00 on ESPN2.
Put your hopes on K-State to win. Then put them on lots of chalk in the mid-major tournaments. Upsets kill bubble teams, and K-State is the bubbliest of the bubbly. Chances may still be slim. But really, who outside Coach Tang’s locker room thought two weeks ago that there would be any chance?