Kansas State men’s basketball looked to bounce back from a 30-point home loss and three straight Big 12 losses before heading back on the road, but ultimately fell 61-57 to Texas Tech after a late scoreless stretch.
“We haven’t embraced what ‘five to grind’ is about and it’s been something that we’ve been trying to work on in practice, but everybody has to buy into it and how we win the last five minutes of games, and we haven’t fully embraced that yet,” head coach Jerome Tang said to K-State Athletics.
K-State (7-9, 1-4 Big 12) did not score in the final 5:50 of the game, making just 1 of its last 12 field goals, including 8 consecutive misses to finish the game. The 57 points matched the Wildcats’ season-low for the second consecutive game.
The game started off slow as no easy buckets came for either team. At the first media timeout, Texas Tech had put together a string of good possessions and led 8-5.
The next four minutes remained a defensive battle as the Red Raiders stifled the Wildcats’ offense. At the under-12 timeout, K-State only mustered nine points and trailed 14-9. Then, Texas Tech reached its highest lead of the night at eight, leading 26-18 with 3:59 left in the half.
“I was encouraged by the defensive effort, but they still shot 50 percent on the field while limiting their three-point attempts, that was huge and our guys did a good job of that,” Tang said.
After the media timeout, a Brendan Hausen corner three sparked an 11-0 K-State run that also included a deep pull-up transition three from Hausen to force Texas Tech into a timeout. Hausen ended the game leading the Wildcats with 13 points, shooting 4-9 from the field and 3-8 from long distance.
K-State’s 15-5 run propelled it into a small lead of 33-31 into half. Center David N’Guessan led all scorers with 11 points at the half. N’Guessan finished the game with those 11 points, scoring double figures for the team-leading 14th time.
Coming out of the half, K-State was able to use some of the momentum generated from the first half run to stretch its lead out to 44-38 behind a couple of triples by guard Max Jones.
“I promise our fans that we will put dudes on the floor that are going to give it effort that’s worthy of wearing a K-State uniform,” Tang said. “And if they’re not going to be gritty and tough like Max Jones and some of the other guys show tonight, then they won’t be on that floor today.”
Jones played with great effort all night and was the consistent player he has been since the start of conference play. Jones finished with 10 points and a season-high nine rebounds across 39 minutes.
However, Texas Tech went on its own run to tie the game and force K-State into a timeout. But the timeout didn’t stop them as the Red Raiders rattled off seven more points leading 51-44, encompassing a 13-0 run.
K-State answered and eventually tied it up at 57 with 5:50 to go after a fadeaway by senior Coleman Hawkins. Hawkins finished the game with 11 points with a stretch of back-to-back triples, helping the Wildcats to get back into the game.
The 3-pointer by Hawkins ended up being the last points of the game by the Wildcats as they would go scoreless for the last 5:50. The defense did its part though limiting Texas Tech to just four points in that same time period.
Texas Tech hit a layup with 17 seconds to go which put them up by four points and sealed the victory. However, 61 points was the lowest Tech scored on the season as a top-25 scoring offense all year.
The big advantage for Tech came with points in the paint as it outscored K-State 40-18 in that area. A lot of it came from its guards being able to get to the hole and finish.
“Well, the way we guarded them, it took away their bigs from getting points in the paint, other than when we screwed up, right and stuff. But it created some opportunities for their guards to get there,” Tang said.
K-State will travel to Lawenerce to face in-state rival Kansas on Saturday. The game will tip off at noon and be televised on CBS.
