A night after winning clean, K-State lost ugly.
A day after cleaning up their season-long turnover act Kansas State reverted to form, giving the ball away a season-high tying 20 times in losing 76-57 to No. 7 Iowa State in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals in Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center.
Considering the extent of their carelessness, the Wildcats (19-14, 8-10 Big 12 regular season + tourney) hung around admirably long, even erasing most of a 7-point halftime deficit to trail by only one, 40-39, after a Will McNair Jr. layup with 16:02 to play. But K-State committed turnovers on 6 of their next 8 possessions, allowing the Cyclones to stage a 16-4 run from which the Cats never recovered.
The deficit eventually ballooned to 20, and K-State never threatened to make a game of it late.
The Wildcats only took 47 shots in the game and only made 18 of them (38%). Iowa state bullied the roster equally, as five Cats committed at least 3 turnovers apiece. Every time the Cats got in the lane, a Clone was there to challenge, forcing either a wild shot or a turnover. The Cyclones were the aggressors, and the aggressive team prevailed.
Three-point shooting might yield an oddly accurate measure of the Cyclones’ dominance of the game. Iowa State made only 1 of 14 three-point attempts (7%). K-State, meanwhile, knocked down 6 of 18 (33%). Yet the Cyclones won by 19. They didn’t even need to make any threes.
Another odd and telling anomaly: The stat sheet says the leading rebounder for K-State was “Team,” which was credited with 8. McNair actually grabbed ahold of the ball more times than any other individual Wildcat, controlling 6 boards.
Tylor Perry led the Wildcats with 18 points, taking only 7 shots from the floor (4-7, 3-6 from three-point range). Arthur Kaluma scored 13 on 5-9 shooting, and the ever-steady McNair scored 12 on 5-8 marksmanship.
Four Cyclones reached double-digits, led by Robert Jones’s 18.
Those slim NCAA Tournament hopes for Tang’s team have surely dissipated in full, now. Too bad the same problem that plagued K-State all season ultimately put those hopes to bed early.
Next Up
Most likely and NIT bid, hopefully including a home game. Stay tuned.