Wildcats top Horns to pass Big 12 test

Kansas State began the Big 12 schedule with a 65-62 victory over Texas on Friday night at Bramlage Coliseum that didn’t feel much different from the 11 nonconference games it won.

The Wildcats leaned on their defense early, took a halftime lead and established control once they found an offensive rhythm.

Many wondered how K-State (12-1, 1-0) would handle the always-challenging Big 12 double round robin after playing one of the nation’s easiest nonconference schedules, but it passed its first conference test with relative ease.

“I didn’t think we were great,” K-State coach Bruce Weber said, “but we made enough plays to win.”

Texas (6-7, 0-1) mounted a late charge and forced K-State to make free throws in the final moments, but K-State led by double digits with less than three minutes remaining.

Dean Wade led the charge. The sophomore forward looked more aggressive and fired away to score a game-high 18 points. He helped the Wildcats break open a close game early in the first half by making back-to-back threes.

His shooting touch provided momentum to the entire roster, as Wesley Iwundu went on to make a deep jumper that gave K-State its largest lead, 53-40, with 7 minutes, 23 seconds remaining.

“I like Dean Wade a lot,” Texas coach Shaka Smart said. “I really liked him last year as a freshman. Last year I said, ‘Man, this guy is going to be really good.’ Coaches here do a good job of developing guys. He is obviously willing to put in the work. When he steps up and shoots it you worry the ball is going in. That’s what happened.”

Wade got off to a slow start and spent much of the first half on the bench in foul trouble, but he was constantly in position to score. K-State players pointed that out to him at halftime, urging him to shoot when he found himself open.

The strategy worked.

“They were just open shots and my teammates found me,” Wade said. “I was in rhythm and I knocked a few down. It was big to do that and start conference play with a win.”

Iwundu also provided a scoring punch and finished with 16 points. Point guard Kamau Stokes was right behind with 15.

The Wildcats needed all three of them to have big games, as well as fellow starters D.J. Johnson (nine points) and Barry Brown (seven points), because they didn’t get a single point from their bench.

Depth has been a concern for K-State all season, especially with forward Isaiah Maurice missing his third straight game while on suspension, and that won’t change after this one. But Weber remains confident in his bench.

“Even though they didn’t score we had Dean and D.J. with fouls and Austin Budke, Carlbe (Ervin) and Xavier (Sneed) go in and we went on a bit of a run,” Weber said. “They kept us going.”

They were best on defense.

Jarret Allen led the Longhorns with 14 points and Shaquille Cleare added 10. Their early-season struggles continued, but they put up a good fight, especially early.

Texas played its best at the beginning and raced to an 11-4 lead. Then K-State fought back with 15 straight points to go ahead 19-11.

The Wildcats took the lead with defense. Weber inserted Ervin, the team’s backup point guard, following the first media timeout, and he rattled the Longhorns by applying full-court pressure. Texas went more than 7 minutes without a point, giving the largest Bramlage Coliseum of the season reason to cheer.

But then K-State slumped and went more than 5 minutes without a field goal.

The lead changed five times and K-State ended up with a 32-29 halftime lead when Iwundu sliced through the Longhorns’ zone defense and made a layup in the final seconds.

K-State kept that momentum going after halftime and won its first conference game of the season. It was a good first step on a Big 12 path that will next take them to Allen Fieldhouse on Tuesday against Kansas.

“It shows we are a very versatile team,” Wade said. “We can do so many things with so many different guys. Guys guarded so well on defense tonight. We missed a lot of open shots, but as long as we are in rhythm, we are going to hit them on most nights.”

This story was originally published December 30, 2016 at 9:21 PM with the headline "Wildcats top Horns to pass Big 12 test."