Kansas State men’s basketball season has continued its less-than-desired start to the season, falling on a buzzer-beater to Drake in the Wildcat Classic at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri.
K-State trailed by as many as 20 before erasing the deficit in the second half while forcing overtime, but ultimately the Wildcats fell to 6-4 and Drake stayed perfect at 10-0.
“They were hard to guard, but so proud of our guys’ effort, their fight, their togetherness, their buy-in, all the things that we’ve been stressing and pushing and fighting for,” head coach Jerome Tang said.
Drake opened the game on a 9-0 run before Tang used a timeout to stop the run. After the timeout, Drake scored again pushing it to 11-0 before guard C.J. Jones scored and got the ‘Cats on the board.
However, the bleeding didn’t stop as the Bulldogs continued to make shots and extended their lead to 29-9 in the first half. Drake guard Mitch Mascari led the way in the first half going 6-6 from three-point land.
As a team, Drake shot 9-16 from three and 24-49 from the field making life tough for the Wildcats’ defense. Drake also took advantage at the line making 16 of their 22 attempts.
Even with Drake playing well offensively, K-State was still able to hold the Bulldogs to 73, giving K-State a chance at victory.
“When you hold a team under 70 points [in regulation], right, that means your team gave you an effort and they executed well enough to give you a chance to win,” Tang said. “That’s where it falls on the coaching staff and me on my shoulders.”
With about five minutes to go in the first half, everything flipped for the ‘Cats. Guards Max Jones and CJ Jones combined to hit three straight triples to cut the lead down to 11.
“Our guys just picked up their effort and got after it, “ Tang said. “And then we made some shots and that gave us more energy and then it got the crowd involved.”
K-State was able to trim the once 20-point lead down to nine and was trailing 36-27 going into the half. In the second half, K-State was aggressive out of the gate and kept cutting into the lead before finally taking the lead 51-49 with nine minutes to go.
However, Mascari answered the K-State lead with a three-pointer to give the lead back to Drake. Mascari finished with 25 points on 8-10 three-point shooting.
K-State and Drake traded blows the rest of the game with each team making timely shots. K-State held for the final shot of regulation but wasn’t able to find anything open. A contested three from guard Brendan Hausen was off the mark and sent the game to overtime.
In overtime, the ‘Cats got off to a slow start, scoring just one point in the first three minutes and allowing Drake to get out to a 70-64 lead.
However, the ‘Cats found their way to the line and after two trips of free throws, the game was 70-67. K-State got a defensive stop and had a chance to tie the game. K-State called a timeout to draw up its play. After nothing looked available at first, a kick-out pass to forward Coleman Hawkins on the wing for a three came open and he drilled it to tie the game with 13 seconds to go.
However, Drake still had a chance and they took advantage as guard Bennett Stirtz dribbled down and hit a three to put Drake ahead and give the Wildcats no chance except for a deep heave which ended up off the mark.
Stirtz finished the game with 22 points despite focused defense against him, capping the night off by hitting the game-winning shot. Strirtz, who grew up a K-State fan, is a native of Liberty and shined back near his home.
Hawkins was the Wildcats’ leading scorer with 16 points and was efficient in all areas grabbing five rebounds, five assists, four steals and adding two blocks.
“Coleman’s [Hawkins] effort and his leadership, the energy, the enthusiasm he played with, was great. His buy-in on, you know, what we wanted to do, I was so proud of that,” Tang said.
The loss was Tang’s first loss in overtime as the K-State head coach, moving to 12-1.
Freshman guard David Castillo made his first career start for the Wildcats and scored three points in 16 minutes of game action.
K-State for the game shot over 50% from the field but was 7-21 from three-point distance. Shooting 11-20 from the free throw line plagued the Wildcats, leaving free points off the board.
K-State heads to Wichita State on Saturday to face the Shockers who are coming off back-to-back losses as well. The game will be tip-off at 6 p.m. in Koch Arena.
