Kansas State controls second half, blows past Iowa State 78-66

A well-timed stretch of quality basketball is all it took for Kansas State to solve its recent home struggles and dispatch Iowa State 78-66 on Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum.

The Wildcats flirted with a loss they could ill afford when the score was tied 33-33 at halftime, but you never would have known it watching the second half.

K-State (19-8, 8-6 Big 12) played with reckless abandon after intermission, making Iowa State (13-13, 4-10) look every bit like the worst team in the conference.

The Cyclones started the half with a shot-clock violation on offense and the Wildcats went ahead with a running layup from Dean Wade on the other end. It was a sign of things to come. Behind a flurry of baskets that featured dunks from Barry Brown and Wade, an athletic layup from Xavier Sneed and a three from Kamau Stokes, K-State raced to a 60-41 lead over the next eight minutes.

It was a dominant run that brought the home crowd to its feet. They hadn’t seen the Wildcats play that well up close in several weeks. K-State had lost its last two games at Bramlage Coliseum and entered Saturday with a better record in Big 12 road games than Big 12 home games. They are now 4-3 in both settings, which is good enough to keep them in the top four of the league standings.

The Cyclones haven’t won a Big 12 road game all season, and their trip to the Octagon was filled with plenty of doom.

Wade was once again a difficult matchup for Iowa State. The junior forward scored a game-high 22 points to go along with eight rebounds and nine assists after scoring 34 points at Hilton Coliseum. This was arguably a better all-around effort.

Brown added 20 points, doing most of his damage in the second half while attacking the basket, and Sneed had 17. The rest of the roster was mostly quiet, but the Wildcats didn’t need any more major contributions to win this game.

They had one of their best rebounding performances of the season, beating Iowa State 35-28 on the glass, while scoring 11 second-chance points.

Cameron Lard led Iowa State with 15 points, while Donovan Jackson had 13 and Lindell Wigginton added 11.

Iowa State has been a difficult opponent for K-State in recent years, but the Wildcats made short work of the Cyclones this season, sweeping them for the first time since 2011.

K-State will try to keep its winning streak going when it is next in action on Wednesday against Texas at home.

This story was originally published February 17, 2018 at 2:11 PM with the headline "Kansas State controls second half, blows past Iowa State 78-66."