Kansas State fans didn’t know what was more impressive, the basketball team’s performance or the comedic dog show at halftime. Both performances were winners and included high enthusiasm along with oohs and aahs throughout. While the four-legged friends put on quite the show, the Wildats defeated the California Golden Bears in a suspenseful 99-96 win.
“I thought the energy in the building at the start of the game kind of stunned them a little bit,” K-State head coach Jerome Tang said. “We know what a crowd looks like here and the energy was incredible. The guys just fed off of it.”
Many high-level accomplishments were made during this matchup against the Wildcats and Golden Bears. The 195 points are the most combined points in Bramlage Coliseum history, surpassing the 194 scored between K-State and Marshall on Dec. 2, 1995. For the first time since 2017, three Wildcats each recorded 20-point games. Junior PJ Haggerty, senior Khamari McGriff and junior Nate Johnson combined to score 64 of K-State’s 99 points.
During the first half, the Wildcats came out strong and physical. After finding their rhythm and taking a 20-point lead, the Wildcats broke up a back-and-forth contest with a 13-0 run.
Two dunks happened, including one from Nate Johnson, who got the crowd on its feet. Johnson raised the energy when he got a steal and slammed it down to put the ‘Cats up 45-22 with 6:45 left before halftime. K-State extended its lead before the break, 55-34, while shooting at a high percentage from both the field goal range and three-point line. The Wildcats shot 67.6 percent from field goal range, along with 75 percent (6-for-8) from the arc.
While shooting percentages were looking good in the stats, defensive stats can’t quite be measured on paper; however, it’s a place of improvement.
“I thought there were times we played really good defense and they just had better offense,” Tang said. “If I judge the first 24 minutes of the game, we executed what we wanted to execute. Then the last 16 minutes of the game, I think they executed what they wanted to execute better than we could defend.
Coming back from halftime, Cal went on many runs throughout the half, including an 8-2 streak. The Wildcats kept their lead as much as 21 points towards the middle of the second half, but the Golden Bears found a rhythm and ran with it. They closed the gap to 86-73 with 5:37 left in the game.
With 2:03 left, McGriff made a 3-point play, putting the score at 98-85, but Cal battled and went on a 7-0 run, cutting the Wildcats’ lead to 98-92 in 38 seconds. Following free throws by Haggerty, Cal scored a dunk along with a layup with eight seconds remaining, to finalize the score of 99-96.
“He figured out they couldn’t guard him,” Tang said. “For a while, they’re like, he was catching it and being hesitant, and then it was like, bro, go score the ball. You need a guy in there who one-on-one, can go get a bucket and he can, so that was impressive.”
Haggerty led the way on the team, putting up 23 points, six assists and three rebounds. He also marked 1,500 career points against the Golden Bears. McGriff had 21 points, going 5-for-5 from the free throw line, along with two assists and two steals. Castillo contributed 16 points, going 6-for-9 from the field goal, along with two assists.
K-State’s next match-up is against Tulsa at Bramlage Coliseum on Nov. 17 at 7 p.m.
