Kansas State Wildcats fall at home against TCU Horned Frogs on last-second shot
The excitement only lasted a few seconds.
Moments after Kansas State guard David Sloan made a three-pointer that tied the score in the final minute against TCU, center Kevin Samuel responded with a layup that gave the Horned Frogs a 59-57 victory on Tuesday at Bramlage Coliseum.
Sloan drained his shot with 13 seconds remaining, which sent the home crowd into a frenzy. But it wasn’t enough to force overtime. TCU, which never trailed in the second half, got off a quick shot on its next possession from R.J. Nembhard and Samuel followed his miss with an easy shot from point-blank range.
Chalk it up as another disappointing loss for the Wildcats (7-7, 0-2 Big 12), who have dropped seven of their past 10 games.
Senior wing Xavier Sneed did all he could to lead K-State to a much-needed victory by scoring a game-high 19 points. But he got little help on the offensive end from his teammates. Makol Mawien was the only other K-State player to reach double figures, and he scored 10 points.
The Horned Frogs (11-3, 2-0) had a more balanced attack behind 16 points, and several important threes from Desmond Bane, 15 points from Nembhard and a double-double of 10 points and 15 rebounds from Samuel.
The game began to get away from K-State at the end of the first half.
K-State tied the score at 23-23 with 3:55 remaining on a reverse layup from Montavious Murphy and seemed poised to stay even with TCU heading into the second half, but the Horned Frogs had other plans.
TCU ended the half with a barrage of three-pointers and ran to the locker room with a 35-25 lead.
What once was a back-and-forth game suddenly felt out of reach for the home team. The most impressive thing about the 12-2 run from TCU was that four different players made outside shots to make it happen. Nembhard got the run going with a three, then Bane and Edric Dennis did the same before Jaire Grayer ended the half with a fade away three as time expired.
K-State coach Bruce Weber stood motionless with his mouth agape as if he couldn’t believe what he just saw.
The Wildcats fought back to make things interesting in the second half and even threatened to force overtime in the final minute. But the Horned Frogs had more answers when it mattered most.
Free throws also hurt K-State. It made just 11 of 19 shots from the foul line, including three of 10 in the second half as it was trying to complete a comeback.
Every time K-State made an impportant shot to challenge TCU, the Horned Frogs responded with an equally big play on the other end.
K-State will look to bounce back when it returns to the court for a road game against Texas on Saturday.
This story was originally published January 7, 2020 at 10:21 PM with the headline "Kansas State Wildcats fall at home against TCU Horned Frogs on last-second shot."