Arizona State edges Kansas State in Las Vegas Invitational semifinals
Kansas State knew it would answer questions one way or the other in its first road test of the young season — unfortunately for the few hundred purple-clad fans who made the Thanksgiving trek to Sin City the answer their Wildcats gave them was a disappointing one.
Despite a hot-shooting first half (KSU connected on 17-of-27 shots in the opening 20 minutes) and a nine-point lead early in the second half, K-State fell to Arizona State 92-90 on Thursday night in its semifinal game of the Las Vegas Invitational at the Orleans Arena.
“We got a good group, they care, they’re teachable. They didn’t quit and they battled their butts off,” K-State coach Bruce Weber said. “But we have to be more sound defensively, and we’ve got to keep up our emotions a little more in check and make plays down the stretch.”
The loss drops K-State into Friday’s 7 p.m. consolation game against George Washington, an 83-64 loser against No. 15 Xavier.
Despite trailing 91-84 with one minute left, Kansas State actually had a chance to tie the game at the buzzer, but junior guard Barry Brown Jr.’s running layup bounced off the rim.
“I knew it was kinda hard, I wanted to hit the front of the rim and give it a chance,” said Barry, who led the Wildcats with 27 points, while Kamau Stokes added 23.
“I should have got into his body a little bit more and drawn some contact and hope the refs would have called a foul our way and then knocked the free throws down at the line.”
Things didn’t exactly go K-State’s way with the officials.
Arizona State (5-0) connected on 29 of 44 free throws, while KSU went to the line just nine times (7 of 9).
“There were some calls I questioned, no doubt about it,” Weber said of the 32-18 foul discrepancy. “I thought he (ASU coach Bobby Hurley) questioned calls early too, but they just kept going worse and worse our way. But our kids kept battling and they played off the (crowd support).”
The pro-Kansas State crowd cheered wildly when a foul call finally went their way with 5:08 left after several infractions had been blown against the Wildcats. Brown immediately hit a deep three to cut the deficit to 81-80.
ASU’s White responded with a tough lay-in, then K-State’s Amaad Wainright answered with a one-handed tip in as the pace picked up.
But senior Kodi Justice, who led the Sun Devils with a game-high 28 points and who seemed to have an answer for every big shot K-State hit, responded with his fourth three-pointer of the game to put ASU up for good.
“We knew he could shoot. But not obviously 9 for 10 or 4 for 4 from three. He hit a couple big bombs down the stretched it out,” Weber said. “He had the big run in the first half and the big run down the stretch and that’s probably the difference in the game.”
A late three by Brown and a drive and free throw made things interesting with 32. 8 seconds left, cutting the lead to 91-90.
Justice tumbled to the floor on the ensuing inbounds pass right in front the K-State bench and Weber pleaded for a traveling call, but ASU was awarded a timeout. However the Sun Devils turned it over.
Stokes missed a three with six seconds left, but ASU’s Remy Martin made only one of two free throws to give K-State a one final chance but Brown’s layup bounced fell off the backboard and hit too hard on the front of the rim as the buzzer went off.
“I told them before that I thought we’d win but even with a win we’ve still got a lot of season left,” Weber said of the loss that ensured that the Wildcats still have won a holiday tournament since the Diamond Head Classic in 2011, a year before he took over as coach.
“Now if you lose, same thing … I told them it’s still a long season. We have to learn, we have to get better and do a better job tomorrow. It’s an important game.”
This story was originally published November 23, 2017 at 9:04 PM with the headline "Arizona State edges Kansas State in Las Vegas Invitational semifinals."