The Wildcats looked good…until they didn’t.
Kansas State blew a 12-point second-half lead and lost to Baylor by a 70-62 score in Waco Wednesday night.
The Wildcats (7-11, 1-6 Big 12) not only led, but seemed to mostly control the game through about the first 30 minutes of play. Using good ball movement and attacking the rim on offense, and contesting close shots on defense, K-State outscored the Bears (12-6, 4-3) 20-4 in the paint in the first half and looked like the clearly better team. Max Jones connected on a 3-point bucket to give the Cats a 30-20 lead with 2:35 to play until intermission.
Unfortunately, 3-pointers by Baylor’s Jalen Celestine and Norchad Omier reduced K-State’s lead to 4 at the break.
But the Wildcats seemed to reassert their dominance after the break. A three by Brendan Hausen, David N’Guessan’s layup and dunk from two of Coleman Hawkins’s 7 assists, and a three-pointer from Dug McDaniel staked K-State to a 40-28 lead before the first media break of the second half.
Baylor broke out a zone defense, and over a 5-minute period, the Bears forged an 8-2 run to pull within 3. Hausen hit a trey to put the Wildcats ahead 48-42, but Baylor super-frosh VJ Edgecombe and senior bench player Jalen Celestine took over the game from there.
Edgecombe alternately drove the lane to dunk over K-State defenders and scored from the free throw line on his way to a career-best 30 points. Celestine added 18 points, including a 4-7 mark from deep.
The game was ultimately decided by the free throw disparity. Baylor made 17 of 21 attempts at the charity stripe, while K-State netted only 5 of 9 tries.
All of K-State’s starters scored at least 8. N’Guessan led the way with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Dug McDaniel scored 12, as did Brendan Hausen.
The lost was K-State’s sixth straight. They are currently 15th in the Big 12, which would be mathematically impossible in a sane world.
They will try again Saturday at 7:00 p.m. against Arizona in Bramlage.