First half• Key play: Rodney McGruder hit a three-pointer that finished off a 16-2 run and put K-State ahead 24-13.
• Key stat: K-State missed 10 of 14 free throws.Second half• Key play: Angel Rodriguez made four free throws late, clinching the game.• Key stat: K-State made 19 of 26 free throws.Rodriguez back in starting lineupRodriguez had the chance to make a game-tying shot against Baylor on Jan. 10, but had the ball poked out of his hands right in front of the basket. When he didn’t handle that disappointment well, coach Frank Martin benched him for the following game at Oklahoma.Now he’s in the starting lineup and playing well. He scored a team-high 14 points on Saturday, and he made several important plays with the game on the line. “It feels good to help the team win,” Rodriguez said. “The Baylor game, I made some mistakes at the end of the game. I felt like I had to make up for it. I did today.”Martin agrees. He sees Rodriguez as an important part to K-State’s starting lineup and says he will remain there for “a little while.”“We need him to be good,” Martin said, “because he alleviates a lot of responsibilities from Will Spradling, from having to deal with that 35-minute burden of dealing with pressure.”• For Martin, the best part about beating Oklahoma State had nothing to do with ending a long losing streak at Gallagher-Iba Arena. What he liked most was the way it validated much of his team’s hard work in recent practices.“We’ve gotten back the last seven days to our foundation,” Martin said, “to practicing the things that are important to us, the things that make us who we are as a team rather than trying to recreate the wheel and do some other things. We’ve refocused in who we are.”• Martin expected Oklahoma State to make a late push, because he has watched the Cowboys steal previous games against the Wildcats in Stillwater. But Cowboys coach Travis Ford, who thought his team played poorly against K-State, was definitely surprised.“I asked the guys, how in the world did they find themselves only down by three with three minutes left?” Ford said.• Victor Ojeleye played 14 minutes and grabbed four rebounds to go with four points.• Freshman center Adrian Diaz grabbed nine rebounds while filling in for the suspended Jordan Henriquez.• Spradling didn’t score until the second half but finished with eight points and five rebounds.Read more Kansas State University
Posted on Sat, Jan. 21, 2012 07:56 PM
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K-State notebook: Rodriguez back in lineup
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| Kellis Robinett, krobinett@kcstar.com
