Three takeaways from Kansas State’s road loss against conference rival Iowa State
Anyone who watched the opening minutes of Kansas State’s basketball game against Iowa State could tell what was coming on Wednesday inside Hilton Coliseum.
The Wildcats turned the ball over on their first three possessions and needed more than two minutes to run off the clock for them to attempt (not make) their first shot. The Cyclones jumped all over their lavender-clad opponents and never let up on their way to a 78-67 victory that sent K-State tumbling out of first place in the Big 12 standings.
K-State (14-5, 4-2 Big 12) fell behind by 14 early and fought valiantly to tie the score midway through the second half and make things interesting by creating some nervous moments for No. 23 Iowa State (15-4, 4-2). But it never actually took the lead. The Cyclones were ultimately too strong on their home court.
Arthur Kaluma led the Wildcats with 16 points and Milan Momcilovic had a game-high 19 for the Cyclones.
The Cyclones ended the night on a 12-5 run to clinch a long, physical game that was filled with 47 fouls and left both teams heated during the handshake line. The rematch later this season at Bramlage Coliseum should be entertaining.
Jerome Tang and the Wildcats will try to bounce back from this loss in their next game at Houston on Saturday.
Until then, here are some takeaways from Wednesday’s action at Iowa State:
This game showed how important Cam Carter is to K-State
Cam Carter committed a pair of early fouls against Iowa State, and that turned out to be the worst thing that happened to K-State in this game.
Tang is willing to trust his starters to play through foul trouble in certain situations, but it’s hard to put anyone on the floor for all that long when he picks up two fouls in a minute at a venue like this. The fans are loud, the opponent is aggressive and the refs tend to favor the home team.
So Carter was glued to the bench for just about all of the first half and the Wildcats predictably fell behind 41-29.
“Normally, I try not to foul guys out in the first half myself by keeping them on the bench,” Tang said. “I felt like we were close enough that instead of risking him getting the third one, and now we’re really in trouble, we could keep him out there for the second half. Then we went on a (run). That being said, we were able to have him for the whole second half. So I don’t regret what I did in the first half, because he was able to be more aggressive in the second half.”
K-State clearly missed its leading scorer when he was on the bench. But just in case that wasn’t obvious, he made his presence felt when he was allowed back on the court in the second half.
The Wildcats immediately battled back from a double-digit deficit and started giving the Cyclones everything they could handle. After leading for 19 minutes and 40 seconds of the first half, Iowa State suddenly found itself calling a timeout to stop a 9-0 run from K-State. It didn’t work. The Wildcats came all the way back to tie the score at 47-47 and then stayed competitive until the final buzzer.
So what changed? Well, K-State had its leading scorer on the floor.
Carter went on to score 12 points in 20 minutes and he gave his team a noticeable boost in every area.
“I wanted to bring toughness,” Carter said. “I feel like our team was a little timid and holding back. So I thought if I brought toughness my team would follow.”
Mission accomplished. Now imagine how much different things could have been with him on the court for 30-plus minutes.
Alas, he also battled foul trouble in the second half. The talented guard committed his fourth foul with just over eight minutes remaining and had to go back to the bench. Iowa State was only ahead by one at the time but was able to pull away from a comfortable victory.
Iowa State is a bad matchup for K-State
The Cyclones force more turnovers than any team in all of college basketball.
The Wildcats turn the ball over more than any other team in the Big 12.
Put those two teams together on a basketball court, especially inside a raucous arena like Hilton Coliseum, and it can be a recipe for a blowout.
K-State did well to prevent that from happening but was unable to mount a comeback against Iowa State and its tough defensive pressure. There were also a lot of fouls called in this game. Iowa State likes to play physical, and that led to 47 total fouls. The game lasted for more than two and a half hours. It was a slug fest.
By the end of the night, it was hard to tell what bothered the Wildcats most. They turned the ball over 17 times and were whistled for 27 fouls.
The foul situation was impossible to ignore afterward.
“Our second half defense was pretty good,” Tang said. “I thought our first shot defense in the second half was really good. For the most part, I thought we did a decent job on the glass. It’s just impossible to defend the free-throw line. That’s what makes it difficult.”
K-State showed toughness in the second half
Give Iowa State a double-digit lead at home and it is almost always going to win. More often than not, it is going to win by a large margin.
The Cyclones and their stingy defense are built to play from ahead. There is nothing they love more than wearing teams down, especially with Hilton Magic on their side.
It would have been easy for K-State to go through the motions and start looking ahead to its next game at Houston.
But the Wildcats didn’t allow that to happen. Not only did they fight back in the second half, they made the Cyclones sweat and fight until the bitter end.
“I don’t feel like we showed anything different,” Kaluma said. “That is just the way we play basketball. Now we have to be able to do that and maintain that for the whole game instead of just one half.”
There is a reason why Iowa State is undefeated in its home building. K-State came close to knocking off the Cyclones.
A moral victory? Probably not. There is no such thing in the Big 12. Still, the Wildcats showed grit in this setting all the same.
This story was originally published January 24, 2024 at 10:42 PM with the headline "Three takeaways from Kansas State’s road loss against conference rival Iowa State."