Xavier Sneed leads Kansas State past Iowa State with career game on senior day
Xavier Sneed provided Kansas State basketball fans with one final reason to remember him fondly during his final game at Bramlage Coliseum.
The senior swingman from St. Louis shrugged off a season worth of frustration and went out in style by scoring a career-high 31 points for the Wildcats in a 79-63 blowout victory over the Iowa State Cyclones on Saturday.
Sneed has obviously played in bigger games and delivered more memorable stat lines, such as the time he scored 22 points and grabbed nine rebounds in a Sweet 16 victory over Kentucky as a sophomore. Still, this was among his finest performances in a K-State uniform.
Helping the Wildcats (10-21, 3-15 Big 12) end a 10-game losing streak and assuring that they finished with a winning home record for the 74th consecutive season made it even sweeter.
Sneed played so aggressively that he almost looked like a different player. Instead of deferring to his teammates, he demanded the ball and made shots from all over, starting with his first look of the game from beyond the arc.
“I was just red hot today,” Sneed said. “I was feeling it.”
Sneed was at his best in the first half, scoring 14 of K-State’s first 18 points and breaking his previous career high of 23 before the break. That was enough for the Wildcats to take a 41-23 lead.
His 26 points were more than Iowa State’s entire roster.
“He came out guns blazing,” Iowa State forward Michael Jacobson said. “Credit to him. He’s a great player, and he went out with a bang.”
“He wasn’t really worried about anything,” Iowa State coach Steve Prohm added. “It looked like he was catch and shoot, really aggressive. He has been a part of some really good teams here and he has had a phenomenal career.”
Sneed cooled down a bit in the second half, but K-State didn’t need him to keep getting buckets at a historic pace. And he still had some highlight moments, like throwing down one of his signature lob dunks from Cartier Diarra. He also had a nifty assist to Mike McGuirl for a highlight finish.
“I’m happy,” K-State coach Bruce Weber said. “It was special. He was able to rise up. They all were able to rise up and play at a special level. You couldn’t be more happy. He’s a good young man. He wants to do well.”
There was some talk among K-State fans about Sneed’s legacy before this game. He played on three NCAA Tournament teams, reached one Elite Eight and earned a Big 12 championship ring. But he is also part of the team that broke the school record for losses in a season this year.
Perhaps a big game like this will help everyone remember the better times.
“It definitely means something for us right now, just to get back in the win column,” Sneed said. “Just to get that momentum going, get some good energy and positive vibes that we have in the locker room today ... That and just wanting to get a win. Not leaving out here on a (loss). I wanted to do everything for my ball club.”
This was a feel-good day for all three of K-State’s seniors.
Manhattan local Pierson McAtee got his first career start against Iowa State and opened the scoring with a driving dunk. He went on to play major minutes and score six points, leaving some to wonder why it took this long for Weber to show trust in him.
Makol Mawien started his 102nd consecutive game and helped K-State dominate inside, even though only scored one point and fouled out after just 12 minutes of action.
It’s been a miserable season for the Wildcats. But everything went right on this day. They were winners again and celebrated like a team that hasn’t had much to cheer about lately. Their last victory came on Jan. 29.
“It’s so important to win for the seniors and honor them,” Weber said. “That’s all we’ve talked abotu since we got back from Oklahoma State.”
One more reason why K-State won so effortlessly: Iowa State was without its two best players. Everyone knew Tyrese Haliburton wasn’t going to play, but Rasir Bolton was also a game-time scratch because of a concussion.
That forced the Cyclones to try and replace 30 points, and that wasn’t going to happen. Iowa State gave Maize product Caleb Grill a start, but nothing seemed to go right with the new lineup.
Much like when Iowa State raced to a 21-point lead earlier this season at Hilton Coliseum, K-State controlled this game from the start.
K-State will try to build off its first victory in more than a month in the opening round of the Big 12 Tournament, about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Sprint Center in Kansas City. The 10th-seeded Wildcats will face No. 7 seed TCU (16-15, 7-11 Big 12).
This story was originally published March 7, 2020 at 5:09 PM with the headline "Xavier Sneed leads Kansas State past Iowa State with career game on senior day."