K-State Wildcats score comeback hoops win as Wichita State basketball fades late
The celebration for K-State fans didn’t end on Saturday afternoon when the football team won the Big 12 championship in dramatic fashion.
The 8,957 fans in Manhattan who attended Saturday night’s men’s basketball game at Bramlage Coliseum were treated to the best of both worlds, as the football team was serenaded by “Stand Up For the Champions” and celebrated with the Big 12 championship trophy at halftime and then the K-State men’s basketball team pulled off its second straight comeback victory over Wichita State with a 55-50 win.
Despite shooting a season-worst 35.8% from the field with a season-worst efficiency of 0.87 points per possession, the Wildcats improved to 7-1 and have now won the first two games of the four-year, in-state rivalry series that was brought back last year following an 18-year dead period. The two teams will play next season at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo.
“We were deeply inspired by our football team’s defensive stand on the goal line and we decided we wanted to make this a defensive game, don’t worry about making shots tonight,” K-State basketball coach Jerome Tang joked. “I think we need to have Will Howard come in and let them know that they have some offense too.”
There was nothing to laugh at for Wichita State, which suffered through a torturous session of deja vu when it failed to close out a game it was in control of for the majority of the second half.
On Tuesday, the Shockers led for nearly 16 minutes of the second half against Missouri, only for turnovers and missed free throws to play a role in squandering a 10-point lead in the final five minutes of what became an overtime loss. Four days later, WSU was in front for more than 14 minutes against K-State in the second half, but made just one field goal in the final 10 minutes and ended the game with three straight turnovers.
“It’s frustrating because it’s happened two games back to back,” said WSU star Craig Porter, who finished with a team-high 11 points, six rebounds, two blocks, two steals and four turnovers. “It just comes down to execution and locking in. That’s been the biggest focus for us, getting guys locked in for a full 40 minutes. I feel like we’re learning a lot and we’re finding out how to play together and how our identity is going to work. This one just slipped away from us.”
Just like in KSU’s 65-59 win in Wichita, Markquis Nowell (11 points) was the Wildcat hero.
He made all of the big plays down the stretch: a game-tying free throw, two straight steals and the game-winning three. In fact, the 27-footer Nowell canned from the right wing to break a 50-all tie with 54 seconds left in Saturday’s game was eerily similar to the deep dagger he drilled to break a 54-all tie in the final two minutes of last December’s victory at Intrust Bank Arena.
“Man, I was happy to see one go in,” said Nowell, who had missed all five of his three-point attempts before the game-winner. “They left me open and I just felt that it was in rhythm that I should take it and then it went in.”
WSU had two tries to launch a game-tying triple, but failed to even attempt a shot in the final 90 seconds.
The first chance ended when Shammah Scott left his feet without knowing where he was passing and his pass was easily picked off by Nowell. The second time came following a timeout with 9.1 seconds left, but ended in disaster when two Shockers cut to the same spot on the three-point line and Porter’s pass was mistakenly tipped out of bounds by Jaykwon Walton, who wasn’t sure if he was the intended target or not.
In its last three losses, WSU has had five one-score possessions in the final minute: the Shockers have committed three turnovers, missed a pair of free throws and airballed their only shot attempt.
“We’ve got to learn how to win basketball games,” WSU coach Isaac Brown said. “We’ve got to learn how to close out those games with a minute or two left in a game. We’ve got to find a way to win.”
Both coaches agreed the play of the game actually occurred just under the 2-minute mark, however.
Keyontae Johnson (game-high 17 points) scored six straight and assisted on the other basket of an 8-0 run by K-State to help build a 49-46 lead, only for WSU to regain the lead by scoring four straight. The Shockers were poised to extend the lead even further when Scott stripped Johnson on a drive and had a fast break the other way.
Scott, playing in just his eighth Div. I game, tried for an emphatic tomahawk dunk, which was blocked out of bounds by Desi Sills with 1:42. The hustle play by Sills proved to save K-State two points when it produced a defensive stop, then Nowell, who has five years of Div. I basketball under his belt, showed his veteran savvy by selling the contact in transition and drawing the foul.
“The game came down to the last two minutes and sometimes it’s about players making plays at the end of the game,” Brown said. “We got a fast-break layup and they blocked it, then they got a fast break and they got a foul. We’ve got to score that.
“And then it’s tied up with 45 seconds to go and (Nowell) stepped up and hit that deep three. Players make plays and he made it in the end.”
In the end, players like Johnson (17 points, five rebounds), Nowell (11 points, seven assists, five rebounds, three steals) and Nae’qwa Tomlin (14 points, six rebounds) made the plays for the Wildcats.
“We always say whoever plays the hardest gets the luckiest and I thought that was true tonight,” Tang said.
While each team was coming off a mid-week loss, WSU was the side to make drastic changes to its rotation. Two players who were playing 20-plus minutes per game — starting center Kenny Pohto and shooting guard Jaron Pierre — did not play a single minute against K-State in what was described by Brown as a coaches’ decision.
A staff member confirmed to The Eagle that Pohto had missed two practices with an illness ahead of Saturday’s game. Both players were in uniform and available to play on the bench.
WSU also came out of the game with some minor injuries, as Walton (nine points, nine rebounds) suffered a sprained right ankle that sidelined him for eight minutes down the stretch of the second half and starting center James Rojas (four points, four rebounds, five turnovers) appeared to be limping in the second half after taking a knock to his knee.
The Shockers will have a week off before returning to Koch Arena to host Longwood next Saturday.
