K-State beats Maryland-Eastern Shore 80-53 in season opener

There are plenty of questions surrounding the K-State basketball team that don’t have ready answers.

Friday night provided at least one in the performance of 6-foot-7 junior guard Wesley Iwundu, who did a little bit of everything in an 80-53 win over Maryland-Eastern Shore in the regular-season opener at Bramlage Coliseum.

“I loved Wes’ game,” K-State coach Bruce Weber said. “Now I’d just love him to practice really well, every day. We haven’t gotten to that point yet, but he’s come a long way.

“Last year, he would get tentative after he missed a shot, but he’s adjusted. That’s how he should play. The older guys need to take the lead.”

Iwundu’s took the lead against UMES with a double-double in the form of a career-high of 23 points and 10 rebounds. He also had four assists and three steals.

Iwundu’s previous career-high of 14 points came in a season-opening loss to Northern Colorado two years ago.

“I do feel like a different player,” Iwundu said. “I feel like I’m doing things differently out there. I was pretty excited for us to come out and make a statement, as a team. That’s a good progression game for the first game of the season. There’s a lot of work to do, but we can get there.”

Iwundu wasted little time putting his imprint on the game, tossing an alley-oop to 6-8 freshman forward Dean Wade for a two-handed slam just 17 seconds in. K-State, picked to finish tied for eighth in the Big 12, hit just 10 of 26 shots in the first half — including 1 of 10 on three-pointers — but took a 35-21 lead into halftime. That came in large part due to defense — UMES shot 6 for 26 and turned the ball over 12 times in the first half.

K-State let UMES hang around for the first part of the second half, watching its lead go from 18 to 12 when UMES got the score to 55-43 with 8:19 remaining after back-to-back baskets and a K-State possession where four Wildcats missed five shots before UMES got the ball back.

“That’s where you just need to slow it down a little bit, kick the ball back out,” Weber said. “I was proud of how we recovered from that.”

K-State put the game away in the next four-plus minutes, outscoring UMES 22-7, capped by a Justin Edwards dunk and a three-pointer in the corner by freshman Barry Brown, who came off the bench and scored 17 points in the game.

“Older guys helping out the younger guys,” Iwundu said. “You get older, you see things differently and you try to relate that to them.”

It was a stretch where the Wildcats managed to score on seven straight possessions.

“That’s just mental toughness, the guys coming together as a team,” Weber said. “You get some transitions, you make some extra passes and you start to make some plays.”

Edwards added 17 points for K-State.

Devin Martin led UMES with 18 points.

Kansas State has two more home games — Monday against Columbia and next Friday against South Dakota — before taking on former Big 12 rival Missouri in the CBE Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City, Mo., on Nov. 23.

“Wes had some good numbers, and some new guys got the feel of competition,” Weber said. “It’s just going to get tougher and tougher as we go.”

This story was originally published November 13, 2015 at 8:26 PM with the headline "K-State beats Maryland-Eastern Shore 80-53 in season opener."