K-State won ugly. Which is fine. If only they could have done it more often.
K-State overcame a dismal fist-half offensive performance to beat the Cincinnati Bearcats 54-49 Wednesday night at Fifth Third Arena.
Before talking about the game (which, to be honest, bears very little discussion), let’s take a look back at the course of the conference season.
You might recall that then-No. 16 Cincinnati (17-13, 7-12 Big 12) opened league play with a 70-67 loss in Manhattan on December 30. That was the start of 4-game losing streak in the Bearcats’ inaugural Big 12 season. More likely, you remember that following that encouraging performance by the Wildcats in Bramlage Coliseum, K-State (15-15, 9-10) lost each of its next 6 games.
The Wildcats tried to atone with a 6-game winning streak that included victories at No. 3 Iowa State and at home against No. 16 Kansas and No. 13 Arizona. Some of the bloom has faded from those wins as Iowa State has fallen to 10th, Arizona to 24th, and Kansas completely out of the rankings. But a subsequent four-game losing streak rendered the run of stellar play all but irrelevant, anyway.
Both teams paths’ have ultimately led them toward the middle of the Big 12 pack, with no chance to make the NCAA field except via an improbable run to a conference tourney championship next week.
Back to tonight’s action.
Here are some signs of a contest between mediocre teams:
- The halftime score was 25-22, Bearcats. Not bad for high school; inexplicably bad for a top-level college game.
- K-State shot 3-18 (17%) from three-point range. Yet, that was better than Cincinnati, which was 2-18 (11%).
- K-State was a barely acceptable 7-10 from the free throw line. Cincinnati was 5-11—on their own floor.
- With 28 seconds to play and his team down by 3, Cincinnati’s Aziz Bandago chose to foul with the shot clock nearing single digits. Compounding the error, the foul was only the Bearcats’ fourth of the period. The shot clock reset to 20 seconds, and by the time the Bearcats fouled three more times to put K-State at the line, only 22 seconds remained.
- To cap the befuddling clock/foul management, Simas Lukosius fouled Brendan Hausen, an 83% foul shooter, for the 7th team foul to put the Wildcats in the bonus. Hausen’s two makes all but sealed the K-State win.
- In a game that Cincinnati once led by 11, K-State made its last field goal with 4:04 to play, yet the Wildcats still managed to win the game.
All of that head-scratching ineptitude aside, the Cats deserve credit for gutting out a win when they were offensively challenged. They did it by locking down driving lanes on defense and forcing Cincy to shoot off-balance jumpers over pressure, while on the other end, K-State found ways to get the ball to the rim for higher-percentage shots in the second half.
David N’Guessan was far and away the game’s best player, scoring 18 points and collecting 10 rebounds. K-State’s most consistent performer is deservedly getting some mentions for possible league honors.
Dug McDaniel was the only other Cat in double figures, scoring 13 on 5-14 shooting. He also had 4 assists and 2 steals with only 1 turnover.
Coleman Hawkins scored 9 and grabbed 8 rebounds. He also had 3 assists and 6 turnovers, but he gets credit for grinding out 35 minutes of play on a leg that obviously was nowhere close to healthy.
Max Jones also scored 9 and grabbed 7 boards. The Wildcats only lost the team rebounding battle (a season-long weakness) by 1, 37-36.
K-State ended the game shooting 22-54 overall (40.7%) after making 13 of 26 attempts (50%) in the second half. Cincinnati was 21-57 (36.8%) for the game.
Day Day Thomas scored 12, and Jizzle James added 10 for the Bearcats.
NEXT GAME
The Cats will try to replicate whatever magic they took with them to Ames at the beginning of February when Iowa State comes calling in Bramlage Saturday at 12:30. The game is on … what? CBS? Can that be right?
David N’Guessan will be making his final appearance in Bramlage, and he deserves a(nother) big senior sendoff.