Kansas State men’s basketball suffered a heartbreaking 74-72 defeat against Cincinnati. After coming back from a 67-54 deficit with less than seven minutes remaining, Bearcat forward Simas Lukosius knocked down a game-winning 3-pointer with 10 seconds left to reclaim the lead and victory.
In the loss, K-State strived on the boards, outrebounding the No. 1 rebounding team in the conference 37-27. Nevertheless, K-State’s 19 turnovers, leading to 29 Bearcat points off turnovers held the Wildcats back from a needed victory.
As bubble teams, the winner of this matchup was destined to receive a major boost in their NCAA tournament hopes. For Cincinnati, the hopes have now risen as the Wildcats now have their backs against the wall.
Similarly to its tournament chances, K-State had its back against the wall early on Saturday night.
Despite guard Tylor Perry scoring 26 points on 10 shots, K-State only had the lead for less than a minute before Perry sunk his sixth 3-pointer to go up 72-71 with just over a minute left.
Due to poor efficiency outside of Perry and center Jerrell Colbert, the first half led to a 34-27 Bearcat lead. Cincinnati had six players with over four points as the Wildcats only had Perry, Colbert and center Will McNair Jr. reaching the mark.
To begin the second half, much looked the same.
Despite a greater group effort, including guard Cam Carter scoring 11 of his 13 points in the second half, Cincinnati consistently kept K-State at arms length.
Then came the comeback.
K-State mounted a 10-0 run to go down three as Perry added eight more points. The Bearcats retaliated with two quick baskets but couldn’t keep K-State away.
After hitting three free throws from Carter, Perry nailed the game-leading 3-pointer before Lukosius won the game. With one chance left, Perry committed the 18th Wildcat turnover of the game followed by forward Arthur Kaluma committing the 19th turnover to seal the game.
With a 17-12 record and 7-9 in the Big 12, a lot must go right for K-State’s March Madness chances. The Wildcats have two Quad 1 games remaining to right the ship before the Big 12 tournament, first at Kansas at 8 p.m. Tuesday and then senior night in Manhattan against Iowa State at 1 p.m. Saturday.
