Wildcats walk away frustrated

Wesley Iwundu shrugged his shoulders and mumbled under his breath as he walked off the floor at Allen Fieldhouse on Tuesday night.

For more than two hours, the Kansas State senior was convinced the Wildcats were going to pull a memorable upset over No. 3 Kansas.

Instead, K-State fell short 90-88 on a driving layup from Svi Mykhailiuk as time expired. That, by itself, would have sent Iwundu and his teammates home in agony, but a missed call from the officials made it worse.

Replays showed Mykhailiuk traveled on the game-winner, picking up his dribble behind the three-point line and taking four steps before putting up an off-balance shot near the basket.

“I have got to admit, that was a tough loss,” Iwundu said after scoring 17 points and grabbing seven rebounds. “My last time playing here, I wanted to make it special. They made a play in the end to win.”

It left K-State in a state of shock. Coach Bruce Weber and players were hesitant to leave the court after the final buzzer. The Wildcats gathered for a huddle to prepare for a possible overtime, hoping the basket would be overturned on review.

But the review centered on when the basketball left Mykhailiuk’s hand. Not where he picked up his dribble. That’s not eligible for a review.

“I think everybody knows here what happened,” Weber said. “You want to see my phones? There are 100 (text messages) on each of them. Everyone knows, but it didn’t happen. We had our chance. They made the play and they got the win.”

Weber went on to call the game’s deciding play an “obvious” travel.

“I’m just sad for our kids,” Weber said. “They battled so hard. I thought we would have it.”

KU coach Bill Self had a different take, saying he hadn’t seen the replay.

“It was still a heck of an athletic play to get it to the hole,” Self said.

This was K-State’s second heartbreaking defeat of the season. The Wildcats (12-2, 1-1 Big 12) also lost by a point against Maryland in late November, surrendering a late lead in its biggest nonconference game.

“They should have been 13-0 coming into this game,” Self said. “They had Maryland beat.”

K-State piled up the majority of its early victories against soft competition, but came within an eyelash of changing that narrative and landing a signature victory in a building where Kansas (13-1, 2-0) rarely loses.

Some will say K-State proved something to a national television audience in this one, even in defeat.

“We proved we belonged,” Weber said. “Now we have to do it Saturday (against Oklahoma) and Tuesday (at Texas Tech). I thought we were going to win. I put a little quote on the board: ‘Success is not final and failure is not fatal.’ I told them, ‘We are going to win this game, but it’s not final.’ We’ve got to keep winning. That is what the guys have got to believe. We have got to get better.”

Unlike K-State’s previous nine defeats here, all blowouts, this was a thriller.

Things appeared different from the beginning.

Instead of falling impossibly behind in the early moments, K-State played some of its best basketball to take a 24-15 lead when reserve guard Xavier Sneed swished a three with 12:05 remaining in the first half.

The Wildcats have rarely looked better under Weber. They made seven of their first 10 shots, forced the Jayhawks into some bad shots and seemed unfazed by the crowd.

K-State hadn’t stayed within single digits of Kansas in Lawrence since former coach Jim Wooldridge won here in 2006, but this group was poised for more.

Dean Wade led the Wildcats with 20 points, Barry Brown and Kamau Stokes both had 13 and D.J. Johnson had 10.

The Jayhawks fought back behind its furious offense after Johnson went to the bench with his second foul with 7:32 remaining in the first half and led 52-42 at halftime. Before Tuesday, K-State had never allowed more than 47 points in the first half of a game under Weber.

K-State had trouble defending KU freshman Josh Jackson, who finished with a game-high 22 points. But it had little trouble scoring on the other end. The Wildcats’ 88 points were their second-most in Lawrence, trailing only a 91-point effort in 1962.

They figured some things out in the second half and fought back to tie the score in the final moments.

K-State even had a chance to go ahead on their final possession and moved the ball to Wade near the top of the key. He was open and lined his shoulders up for one of the biggest shots he will take. Weber said he couldn’t have asked for a better look, but the shot bounced off the rim and K-State lost the rebound out of bounds with 5.6 seconds to go.

Then the Jayhawks won with a play, and a no-call, the Wildcats won’t soon forget.

“I am proud of our guys,” Weber said. “The last thing I wrote on the board was let’s make Jan. 3, 2017 a memorable moment you will have with you for the rest of your life and K-State fans will be proud to be a part of. We were close. We just didn’t get it done.”

This story was originally published January 3, 2017 at 10:41 PM with the headline "Wildcats walk away frustrated."