MANHATTAN, Kan. Kansas State and Texas Tech are the two best defensive teams in the Big 12, and it shows.
Their coaches value hard work and grit more than talent. Their rosters feature length and athleticism more than smooth shooters. Their identities revolve around steals and blocks instead of dunks and 3s.
All of that was apparent when they met with first place in the Big 12 standings on the line Tuesday at Bramlage Coliseum. Toughness mattered as much as skill, if not more. Things got so physical at times it felt like a football game.
K-State emerged from the scrum with a 58-45 victory. It was arguably the teams hardest earned win of the season, as well as the most rewarding.
Perhaps the Wildcats (15-4, 5-2 Big 12) are now ready to return to the top 25 polls now that they have won five straight games and downed the No. 14 Red Raiders (15-4, 4-3).
With the win, K-State moved into a first-place tie with Kansas in the conference standings and continued to erase any memories of some shaky play while starters Dean Wade and Kamau Stokes battled foot injuries earlier this month.
The Wildcats rewarded the fans who braved cold weather and icy roads to attend this game by making another Big 12 contender look like an also-ran.
Things werent supposed to be so easy. Texas Tech and K-State are so similar on paper that, like the popular Spider-Man meme, it would be hard to tell them apart if they dressed the same.
Texas Tech entered Tuesday sporting the nations best defense in terms of adjusted efficiency. K-State ranked fifth in the same category.
But only the Wildcats looked superb on defense in this one.
K-State held Texas Tech to 32.7 percent shooting, allowing the Red Raiders to make only five of 23 shots from 3-point range.
The Wildcats broke open a close game midway through the first half behind a series of big shots from Barry Brown and Dean Wade. Then they kept the Red Raiders at arms length with some timely shots from Mike McGuirl and Makola Mawien.
Things started to tilt K-States way when Brown hit a jumper that gave K-State a 26-18 lead with 3:23 remaining in the first half. An eight-point lead might not normally mean all that much in the early going, but it felt a lot bigger the way both teams were slowing the pace down and playing defense.
Jarrett Culver led Texas Tech with 17 points and Tariq Owens added 12, but no one else on Chris Beards roster could muster much of anything. Five of the eight Texas Tech players who scored finished with two points.
K-State didnt have those kinds of problems on offense. Brown led the way with 15 points, including several nifty driving layups in the second half. Wade chipped in 13 and McGuirl added nine.
