Tennessee too much for Kansas State in Big 12-SEC Challenge

Kansas State has been far from a perfect basketball team this season, but the Wildcats have always played with admirable grit and effort.

Until now.

Tennessee handed K-State its most-lopsided defeat of the season, 70-58 in a Big 12-SEC Challenge game Saturday at Thomspon-Boling Arena. It was a loss that brought the team’s preparation, mindset and heart into question.

“I didn’t think we competed as hard as we needed to,” K-State coach Bruce Weber said. “That was the whole thing.”

The Wildcats were doomed from the start. For the second straight game, they fell behind by 17 points at halftime and looked hapless on the road. But unlike a narrow loss at Iowa State earlier in the week, the Volunteers didn’t build their lead behind sizzling three-point shooting. Nor did they allow K-State to mount a serious comeback.

Tennessee (12-9, 4-4 SEC) dominated the entire way and left K-State (15-6, 4-4 Big 12) searching for answers.

The biggest question: why do the Wildcats continue to struggle on the road? Weber’s road record now stands at 15-33, with the majority of his victories coming in his first season when K-State shared a conference championship with Kansas. Since then, it has gone 8-30 in true road games.

There are many possible reasons for K-State’s road woes. Recently, though, slow starts have been the culprit. The Wildcats possessed a late lead at Iowa State, but they had to rally from 20 down in the second half to give themselves a shot. Here, they fell behind by 19 before a string of three-pointers pulled them to within single digits. Once again, it wasn’t enough.

Frustration is building.

“You can throw it all in there. It’s all of the above,” said K-State senior Wesley Iwundu after scoring 14 points. “As a team, we have got to do a better job of focusing and preparing ourselves for this type of game. There is no excuse for us getting 17 down in the first half. As good as a team as we are, when we go back and look at the film we should be disgusted with ourselves and how we played.”

Grant Williams scored 17 points for Tennessee, Jordan Bowden had 13 and Robert Hubbs added 10, but no one on the Volunteers’ lit up the stat sheet with a career game. Still, they won decisively.

Surprisingly, they had the most success inside. K-State entered with a size advantage, but it hardly mattered. Tennessee grabbed 43 rebounds (13 more than K-State) and scored 23 second-chance points (17 more than K-State).

The game was perhaps best summed up on a three-pointer from Tennessee forward Lew Evans late in the first half. The Volunteers, thanks to offensive rebounds, had scored on four straight possessions and led 34-22, but it seemed like the Wildcats were finally going to get a stop. They had Evans, a reserve big man not known for his shooting, trapped in the corner with the shot-clock winding down. He looked for an outlet pass, but there was no room so he put up an awkward shot that rattled through.

K-State players appeared demoralized and senior forward D.J. Johnson lost a turnover on the other end of the court. Tennessee answered with a jumper to take a 39-22 halftime lead.

Weber blamed some of that disparity on nagging injuries to K-State’s top two inside players. He said Johnson has missed a week of practice while dealing with hamstring and foot injuries. Sophomore forward Dean Wade has also been sidelined with a sprained foot.

“They really killed us inside,” Weber said. “It’s not an excuse, but it’s a fact: D.J. Johnson and Dean Wade haven’t practiced in a week. Right now they are fighting through injuries, like probably a lot of people in the country, and we didn’t get enough out of them.”

Johnson had four points and nine rebounds in 28 minutes. Wade had three points and one rebound in 12 minutes.

“You watch, you study, you know what you are doing for the most part,” Johnson said. “The ability to play and run up and down, that was maybe at our disadvantage. But I knew what I was doing. I knew my matchup.”

Weber had a different opinion.

“We lost the play-hard chart the second time in a row,” Weber said. “But, again, you look at our team. D.J. and Dean have been our leaders on the play-hard chart and they are struggling right now. I give them credit. They are encouraged to play in the games, but we need them healthy.”

K-State will need all hands on deck to close the season strong, starting with its next game against TCU on Wednesday.

Barry Brown led K-State with 17 points against Tennessee, while Iwundu added 14 and Kamau Stokes scored 11. No one else was a difference-maker. That led to another loss.

“We have to get back to the basics,” Iwundu said. “We have to get back to doing what we did to win. We’re not doing that right now, sharing the ball, playing hard, playing K-State basketball, being tough on our opponents. We have to get back to it.”

TENNESSEE 70

KANSAS STATE 58

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Percentages: FG .396, FT .652. Three-Point Goals: 5-16, .313 (Brown 3-7, Wade 1-1, Sneed 1-3, Budke 0-1, Iwundu 0-2, Stokes 0-2). Team Rebounds: 1. Team Turnovers: 13 (12 PTS). Blocked Shots: 4 (Sneed 2, Iwundu, Maurice). Turnovers: 13 (Brown 4, D.Johnson 2, Ervin 2, Iwundu 2, Sneed 2, Wade). Steals: 5 (Brown 2, Budke, Iwundu, Sneed). Technical Fouls: None.

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Percentages: FG .448, FT .619. Three-Point Goals: 5-14, .357 (Bowden 2-5, G.Williams 1-1, Turner 1-3, Evans 1-4, Phillips 0-1). Team Rebounds: 6. Team Turnovers: 11 (15 PTS). Blocked Shots: 4 (Alexander 2, Evans, Turner). Turnovers: 11 (G.Williams 2, Schofield 2, Turner 2, Alexander, Bone, Bowden, Evans, Hubbs). Steals: 6 (Evans 2, Bone, Bowden, Hubbs, Turner). Technical Fouls: None.

Half: Tennessee 39-22. Attendnace: 14,398.

AP-WF-01-28-17 2220GMT

This story was originally published January 28, 2017 at 3:10 PM with the headline "Tennessee too much for Kansas State in Big 12-SEC Challenge."