Kansas State can’t capitalize late, loses close one to Texas 60-57

Bruce Weber wasn’t sure how to react to Kansas State’s 60-57 loss to Texas on Tuesday night at the Erwin Center.

The K-State basketball coach liked his team’s effort and preparation. He was also pleased with the way it responded from a disheartening double-overtime loss to No. 17 West Virginia over the weekend. But a loss is a loss, and the Wildcats have suffered narrow defeats in their first two conference games.

He likes the direction they are headed, but, at the same time, he knows they need to improve.

“You can use all the excuses you want,” Weber said. “I have told the kids since Saturday, ‘You can say we are young, we are new, we play hard and all that stuff. But we can’t accept losing. We have got to go earn victories.’”

K-State put itself in position to win its last two games, but the Wildcats walked away from both as losers because of poor late-game execution.

The latest setback came on a night that was often defined by errors and missed opportunities.

K-State, as it has all season, struggled against a zone defense and made 37.3 percent of its shots. Texas was slightly better at 39.6 percent, but struggled with 6-for-23 three-point shooting.

Neither team could pull away. As the game went on, K-State couldn’t pull even.

It had a good opportunity on its final possession, inbounding the ball underneath the Texas basket down three with 17.8 seconds to go. But K-State freshman Barry Brown, who led the Wildcats with 15 points, missed a pair of three-pointers.

“We just need to figure out how to win a game and how to get the stops and how to execute down the stretch,” Weber said.

Making a three-pointer is far from K-State’s forte — it entered Tuesday shooting 28.5 percent from beyond the arc — so making one with the game on the line when Texas knew it was coming understandably was a challenge.

Weber drew up a play with several options, but he wanted the ball in Brown’s hands. As he brought the ball up the court, Texas altered its defensive look by switching on screens and eliminated Brown’s chances of passing to another outside shooter.

So he kept the ball and fired from the wing with about 8 seconds left, but it missed short and left. He had the poise to grab his own rebound and launch another three. But that one missed, too.

“I was just looking to get the three off,” Brown said. “I was up against a bigger man. I figured he wasn’t used to guarding on the perimeter, so I tried to hesitate him and shoot it. The second one was probably the best look. I just shot it short.”

With that, K-State (10-4, 0-2) walked off the court in frustration, while Texas (9-5, 1-1) had its first Big 12 victory under coach Shaka Smart.

“It’s frustrating, because we fight hard and we are in every single game,” K-State guard Justin Edwards said after scoring 13 points. “I don’t think any team has beaten us outright. We have fought the whole time. Not coming out with the win is frustrating, but we are going to be back in the gym and figure out how to win. We are going to come back strong.”

The most frustrating thing about this game was that K-State led at halftime 29-26 and held an advantage for much of the second half. But when it couldn’t build on its lead, Texas pulled ahead in the final moments.

Longhorn players referred to this as a must-win game afterward, and the Wildcats understand its importance, too. It now faces the difficult task of ending a losing streak at No. 2 Oklahoma on Saturday.

The Wildcats will hope for better execution. They lacked it at key times Tuesday, but so did the Longhorns.

For the longest time, this game was defined but what both teams couldn’t do.

K-State tried and failed time and again to build on a narrow lead throughout the second half, but missed too many open shots to create separation.

Texas pushed K-State for most of the second half, but failed to convert every time it had an opportunity to pull even or take the lead. On two occasions, the Longhorns had the ball and an opportunity to tie the score and went all out hoping for a play worthy of highlight consideration. An alley oop and driving reverse layup both ended in turnovers.

It wasn’t until Javan Felix made a deep three with fewer than 4 minutes remaining that Texas pulled ahead in the second half, taking a 51-50 lead. It struggled shooting from the outside much of the way, going 6 of 23 from beyond the arc.

“We didn’t make many threes tonight,” Smart said. “But we made enough to win, and we made some big ones down the stretch.”

Isaiah Taylor had the biggest shots, coming through with 17 points, including several driving baskets. Felix added 14.

Weber listed several things K-State could have done better to overcome those numbers in the aftermath of this game. Coming so close, again, made this one hard.

“They have given us great effort and they have been coachable, all the things you ask,” Weber said of his players. “We are a good team, now can we become a very good team? That is the question. it’s all about stepping up.”

TEXAS 60

KANSAS STATE 57

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Percentages: FG .373, FT .762. Three-Point Goals: 3-19, .158 (Brown 2-6, Edwards 1-2, Hurt 0-1, Iwundu 0-2, Wade 0-3, Stokes 0-5). Blocked Shots: 3 (Johnson 2, Budke). Turnovers: 9 (Edwards 4, Wade 2, Stokes 2, Iwundu). Steals: 5 (Brown 2, Ervin II 2, Johnson). Technical Fouls: None. Fouled Out: None.

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Percentages: FG .396, FT .667. Three-Point Goals: 6-23, .261 (Felix 2-7, Lammert 2-7, Taylor 1-2, Mack 1-4, Holland 0-1, Davis Jr. 0-2). Blocked Shots: 2 (Taylor, Ibeh). Turnovers: 10 (Holland 2, Ibeh, Lammert, Roach Jr., Taylor, Davis Jr., Mack, Felix, Cleare). Steals: 5 (Taylor 3, Felix, Holland). Technical Fouls: None. Fouled Out: None.

Half: Kansas State 29-26. Attendance: 10,620. Officials: John Higgins, Kelly Self, David Hall.

This story was originally published January 5, 2016 at 7:56 PM with the headline "Kansas State can’t capitalize late, loses close one to Texas 60-57."