K-State puts on a finishing kick to beat George Washington

By KELLIS ROBINETT

The Kansas City Star

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MANHATTAN, Kan. | When Kansas State plays with energy and a sense of purpose, it shows the potential of being an upper-level Big 12 basketball team.

But doing so has been difficult for the Wildcats in their first four games.

Thursday’s 69-56 victory over George Washington at Bramlage Coliseum was a perfect example. When K-State pushed the tempo on offense and defended as if the game were on the line in the second half, it outclassed the Colonials. But when the Wildcats did not do that in the first half, they found themselves in a tense locker room up 32-29 at halftime.

K-State coach Frank Martin couldn’t explain all the reasons behind the drastic change in play, but he knows what he will stress in practice today.

“When we play on offense like we play on defense — as a unit, we execute what is called, play together, help each other — we’re a good basketball team,” Martin said. “When we play selfishly on offense, the way we did for the majority of the game today, where it’s not about the team and whoever has it shoots it, we’re not a very good team.”

K-State, 4-0, has made a habit of showing its bad side early and its good side late. Some of that has to do with a transition the team is making on offense. It takes time for every new group of players to jell on the court, and in time K-State presumably will improve on the 37.5-percent shooting effort it had on Thursday, which included 17 of 22 misses from three-point range.

That doesn’t explain the team’s generally strong second-half play, though. K-State has decisively won the final 20 minutes of every game it has played.

Maybe it’s a focus issue, playing in front of noticeably empty seats, as was the case again Thursday. Maybe the Wildcats have to realize they are in a close game before they ramp up their play. Or perhaps they simply respond better to Frank Martin’s halftime coaching than they do his pregame speeches.

Whatever the case, there’s no doubt Martin would like his players to start giving the same effort from start to finish, especially on offense.

A few players did that against George Washington, 4-2. Freshman forward Thomas Gipson, in particular, was impressive from the opening tip. He led all scorers with 17 points, and he had 13 rebounds. He has clearly come a long way since coming up with zero rebounds in the season opener.

“Gipson was just a man amongst boys out there tonight,” said George Washington coach Mike Lonergan. “He dominated the game. He’s tough. We’ve got a freshman trying to guard him, and we’ve got some other guys who aren’t exactly big and tough inside. That’s just a bad matchup for us. … He’s a heck of a player. He really just manhandled us.”

Senior forward Jamar Samuels, who scored 10 points and snared 10 rebounds, was also productive early and ended the first half with seven rebounds.

The whole team seemed to catch up in the second half. After trading baskets early in the second half, the Wildcats took control with a 20-5 run and cruised the rest of the way.

Will Spradling, who scored 12 of his 14 points in that surge, made a three-pointer that got the run going and finished it with nine straight points. More than anyone, he experienced how much better K-State can play when it is energized.

“We just got in a good rhythm,” Spradling said. “We were running offense, and that opened up a lot of shots, opened up a lot of driving lanes. We were making the extra pass, which we weren’t doing in the first half.”

Consistently duplicating those efforts in a difficult stretch of games, which begins Sunday in the Wildcats’ first road game against Virginia Tech and includes West Virginia and No. 12 Alabama, is now K-State’s challenge.