MANHATTAN — It was a tale of two halves inside Bramlage Coliseum on Saturday afternoon when No. 7 Kansas State got No. 10 Texas’ best second half knockout punch in a 69-66 loss.
The Wildcats (18-5; 7-4) led the Longhorns (19-4; 8-2) by 11 points at halftime before Texas stormed back in the opening minutes of the second half, a scorching hot 9-2 scoring run. Texas ultimately took their first lead of the second half on a Christian Bishop free throw with 12 minutes left in the game.
Texas was helped out by Bishop’s 14-point second half, all of his points coming in the second half alone. The Longhorns also shot 57.1% from the field in the second half, a much better mark than their 30.4% shooting from the floor in the first half.
“They just came out in the second half and were way more physical and aggressive than we were,” said Kansas State head coach Jerome Tang. “I don’t know what the mindset was, but we talked about coming out and owning the paint again. They killed us in the paint and that was the difference in the ballgame.
We didn’t set the tone of the game, we let them set the tone in the second half,” Tang added.
Kansas State began the afternoon by going down early after Timmy Allen buried a trio of free throws to give his Texas squad a 5-2 lead. The Wildcats were whistled for a pair of fouls through the opening two minutes of regulation to help out the Longhorns.
When Cam Carter banked in a layup five minutes into the game, it would mark a lead the Wildcats wouldn’t surrender the rest of the opening half. Keyontae Johnson chipped in shortly after and stretched the Kansas State lead to six when he nailed a corner three with 12 minutes left in the half.
David N’Guessan also hit a three to help extend the Kansas State lead to nine points with eight minutes remaining in the first half, 20-11. Following another pair of treys off the fingers of Desi Sills and Carter, the Wildcats took a double-digit lead with seven minutes left in the first half, 26-14.
The closest Texas made it the rest of the first half was when Marcus Carr knocked down a two-point jumper with four minutes left to make it a 10-point game.
Sir’Jabari Rice hit a pair of free throws right before half to keep his Texas team’s deficit at 11, 36-25.
Texas was led on their 9-2 scoring run in the opening minutes of the second half by Tyrese Hunter’s five points through that stretch, including a three which made it a four-point game, 38-34. Not long after, a Dillon Mitchell layup made it only a one-point Kansas State lead with 13 minutes left, 42-41.
“We never want to lose at home,” said Tang. “When everybody does their job and you don’t, that’s not a good thing. Everybody in our arena did their job except for the coaches and players on the floor and we have to fix that.”
Bishop then put his Longhorns ahead when he went hard underneath for a layup and drew a free throw to make it a 46-45 Texas lead with 12 minutes left. Following an Ismael Massoud three on the next possession to put the Wildcats ahead for a moment, Texas took back the momentum.
Rice then stepped up for Texas in the second half when he hit a pair of three-pointer’s to stretch the Longhorns lead to six with eight minutes left, 56-50. Texas maintained their six-point lead through the next few minutes when Bishop slammed home a dunk to make it a 58-52 lead for the visitors.
Nae’Qwan Tomlin helped bring Kansas State within two points when he slammed down a dunk himself with four minutes left which made it a 62-60 game. Nowell then hit a two-point jumper to knot the game up at 64-64 with three minutes left in the second half.
