Surrounded by a roaring crowd, the Kansas State Wildcats and the Utah Utes moved up and down the court, pushing the pace and continuing back-and-forth possessions. The Wildcats built a five-point lead after P.J. Haggerty hit a jump shot, but the Utes would battle back, tying the game at 74-74 with 3:18 remaining.
Putting the Wildcats up by two, Haggerty drove from the corner arc to the lane for a mid-range jump shot. During the play, Haggerty got fouled on his shot and converted the three-point play.
Utah continued its dogfight, making a layup to tie the game at 77-77. K-State would transition to offense, where Haggerty would sink a jumpshot with 0:39 seconds left.
Fans stood up, shouting and screaming as Utah went to the free-throw line, making one of two shots, and leaving K-State with a one-point lead. With no time to waste, Utah called a timeout with 0:11 seconds left in the game, drawing up a plan to get a defensive stop against the Wildcats.
As the Utes came out in a full-court press, Nate Johnson got fouled quickly, sending him to the line. Pressure, intensity and still silence surged throughout Bramlage Coliseum as Johnson lined up at the stripe. Johnson splashed both shots to lead 81-78 with 0:06 seconds to prevail.
Due to time not being on their side, Utah quickly got down the court, took a contested three-pointer and missed, sending K-State fans into a loud and cheerful frenzy.
By the end of the night, three Wildcats stood out on the stats sheet. Haggerty led with 34 points, four assists, and two steals. David Castillo accumulated 20 points and two assists, and Johnson had 17 points and six assists.
“At the end of the day in life, whether it’s basketball [or] life, you’re gonna lose, you’re gonna win,” Haggerty said. “But I think once you lose and you’re at your bottom, it shows who you really are as a person. So see if you can quit [or] you keep going. And just as a team, as a player, just gotta keep going. Just never quit.”
The Wildcats started off the night with a steal by Taj Manning, which was picked up by Castillo for a successful contact-induced layup.
Castillo made a splash from the arc to get K-State within two, 7-5. Castillo would find his rhythm in that same spot two more times, giving the Wildcats a six-point lead with 14:20 left in the first half.
“Dave is ready, man, he’s ready,” K-State head coach Jerome Tang said. “He works really hard, and I was really proud of how he started the game. And I’m proud of how he’s learning how to move on from mistakes, because he’s such a perfectionist, right? He wants to do everything perfect and so he’s growing in that area. But I’m so proud of him.”
Before a media timeout, K-State was a working unit, going on a 13-2 run over 2:36.
The Wildcats were hot at the arc from the get-go, but couldn’t continue that into the latter part of the night, resulting in a 52.2% three-point percentage after all was said and done.
K-State built a lead of 10 points before Utah would respond with an 8-0 run. During the Utes’ scoring splurge, the Wildcats found themselves in a scoring drought of 2:02, but were rekindled by back-to-back threes by Andrej Kostic.
The Wildcats went into the half leading 46-43. Racking up the stats sheet, Castillo had 17 points, two rebounds and one assist. Johnson also recorded 15 points, two rebounds and two assists.
As the Wildcats took the court for another half, it took K-State a while to find its rhythm, but once they did at 15:50, the dark-grey-and lavender-clad Wildcats went on a 6-0 run to lead by three points, 54-51.
“Everybody’s just been locked in and motivated,” Castillo said. “What really helped, I feel like, too, was the guys that were gone were still encouraging, and so there was not a lot of sulking. It was a lot of motivation for them missing. So we were playing for them and playing for everybody.”
Not backing down, the Utes would go on an 8-0 run at the 11:44 mark, while the Wildcats had a scoring drought of 4:12.
K-State would soon come back, however, and on three straight possessions made by Haggerty — who sank a three on a fast break and contributed two other jumpshots — the ‘Cats tied the Utes at 65-65 with 8:16 remaining in the game.
While the clock ticked down to a minute, Utah tied the game at 77-77 with a layup but couldn’t overtake the ‘Cats, resulting in an intense 81-78 win against Utah.
“I just really want to thank the students, and they showed up for us,” Tang said. “If they’re not here, like they are tonight, and as loud as they were, we don’t win this game. And so, God gets the glory. Students get some of the credit for making this a great environment. Looking forward to Saturday’s environment.”
K-State’s next matchup is against the University of Kansas at 7 p.m. on Jan. 24 for the Sunflower Showdown at Bramlage Coliseum.
