NORMAN, Okla. | The prospect of an upset seemed almost impossible.</p><p>But in the face of a 21-point deficit and 84,021 fans rooting against them Saturday night, the Kansas State Wildcats made things extremely interesting before falling 42-30 to 22nd-ranked Oklahoma.</p><p>Just look at the stats. K-State scored more points against the Sooners than any team has all season. Not even BYU, Texas, Kansas and Miami, who were all ranked when they played Oklahoma earlier in the year, could muster more than 21 points against them.</p><p>&ldquo;Offensively,&rdquo; said wide receiver Brandon Banks, who broke a Big 12 record with his fifth career kickoff return for a touchdown, &ldquo;That was the best we&rsquo;ve played all season.&rdquo;</p><p>At home, Oklahoma had allowed seven points all season.</p><p>But the Wildcats scored 30 in the final three quarters.</p><p>&ldquo;We can build on this,&rdquo; said K-State running back Daniel Thomas, who rushed for 88 yards, passed for 41 yards and scored a touchdown. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a great motivating factor for next week.&rdquo;</p><p>No kidding. At 5-4 overall and 3-2 in the Big 12, hope remains high for K-State fans. The Wildcats still lead the North Division and rival Kansas, reeling from three straight losses, is coming to Manhattan this Saturday.</p><p>K-State still controls its own destiny, and after a performance like this, that&rsquo;s never been more meaningful. If the Wildcats continue to play the way they did during the final three quarters, they will have a chance to win every game remaining on their schedule.</p><p>Banks was a big reason why. The senior caught nine passes for 156 yards and also took a fourth-quarter kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown, tying Darren Sproles&rsquo; school record for all-purpose yards in a game with 351.</p><p>Quarterback Grant Gregory, who threw for 80 yards last week against Colorado, completed 19 of 30 passes for 174 yards. K-State&rsquo;s once mediocre offense suddenly looked explosive amassing 364 yards.</p><p>&ldquo;This proves we can move the ball against anybody,&rdquo; Thomas said.</p><p>Maybe, but K-State must now figure out how to start games stronger. The entire team appeared lost during the first quarter against Oklahoma, and the Sooners led 21-0 less than 11 minutes into the game.</p><p>Things looked so lopsided that after one quarter, a good number of Oklahoma fans left early.</p><p>&ldquo;We got flustered out there,&rdquo; defensive end Jeffrey Fitzgerald said. &ldquo;We had to slow down. There were a lot of calls we didn&rsquo;t get as a defense. (We weren&rsquo;t) on the same page.&rdquo;</p><p>Afterward, many K-State players said their 66-14 loss at Texas Tech earlier in the season was creeping into their minds.</p><p>But the Wildcats never let Oklahoma pull away. After the first quarter ended, they outscored the Sooners and twice cut their lead to five points.</p><p>Thomas ran in a 2-yard touchdown that made the score 28-23 with 4:35 remaining. A string of penalties forced Oklahoma into a first and 45 but Landry Jones led the Sooners out of the jam.</p><p>Jones, a freshman who threw for 294 yards and four touchdowns, hit Ryan Broyles for a 25-yard pass on third-and-24. DeMarco Murray caught a touchdown pass moments later that made the score 35-23.</p><p>It looked like the Sooners, 5-3 overall and 3-1 in the Big 12, were finally going to pull away, but then Banks unleashed his touchdown return and the Wildcats were back in it. The game was a toss-up from there, but Murray ran in a 3-yard touchdown.</p><p>K-State narrowly missed out on beating a ranked team for the first time all season, ending the nation&rsquo;s longest home winning streak and gaining loads of respect.</p><p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re disappointed,&rdquo; Gregory said. &ldquo;We had the chance to do something that hadn&rsquo;t been done in a long time. We gave a good effort but we didn&rsquo;t get it done.&rdquo;</p><p>K-State coach Bill Snyder likes that attitude.</p><p>&ldquo;I hate moral-victory-type comments,&rdquo; Snyder said. &ldquo;For our young people, for this program to grow, you&rsquo;ve got to have tremendous disappointment when you lose a ballgame regardless of how you played. That&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;m looking for first. If that takes place, there will be growth for our upcoming ballgames.&rdquo;