Texas dismantles shorthanded K-State 67-47 in Big 12 basketball opener
Kansas State had just enough offense to win basketball games without Dean Wade. Take away Kamau Stokes, too, and that’s no longer the case.
The Wildcats couldn’t keep up with the Texas Longhorns while two of their senior starters watched from the bench in street clothes and lost their Big 12 Conference opener 67-47 on Wednesday at Bramlage Coliseum.
It was a difficult outcome for K-State coach Bruce Weber to swallow. At full strength, the Wildcats (10-3, 0-1 Big 12) would be obvious favorites over the Longhorns (9-4, 1-0 Big 12), especially on their home floor. Even without just Wade, who has been sidelined the past two weeks with a foot injury, they seemed to have a slight advantage. But things shifted toward Texas when Stokes aggravated a nagging foot injury of his own during a pregame shoot-around and was unable to play.
Wade was averaging 13.6 points and Stokes wasn’t far behind at 11.1 K-State needed someone to step up in their place. It didn’t happen.
Barry Brown was held scoreless in the first half and needed nearly 22 minutes to make his first basket. Cartier Diarra didn’t make a single three-pointer and Mike McGuirl was largely ineffective in his first start.
The Wildcats seemed lost every time they touched the ball, waiting for the shot clock to wind down before running offensive sets and rarely coming up with quality looks.
Meanwhile, Texas found a scoring rhythm as the game went on and pulled away for a drama-free victory. The final score was so lopsided that it’s hard for K-State to blame the loss simply on injuries.
The Longhorns were the better team, and that probably would have been the case even with K-State at full strength.
Offense has been a problem all season for the Wildcats, even during a 10-2 start, and it will be impossible for them to live up to their lofty preseason expectations until it gets fixed.
This game turned the Longhorns’ way when Jase Febres hit back-to-back threes to put Texas ahead 40-35 with 10 minutes to go. K-State improbably led before those baskets, but a five-point deficit felt like too big of a mountain to climb.
Jaxson Hayes followed with a dunk and free throw to give Texas a 43-36 lead and then things got out of hand. The Longhorns suddenly got hot from the outside and surged ahead by 20.
Febres led Texas with 23 points. He scored the bulk of his points from the perimeter and finished with seven three-pointers. Seven of his teammates scored.
Makol Mawien was the only K-State player to finish in double figures. He scored 13 points.
The first half was hard to watch, and it was a sign of things to come.
With both teams clamping down on defense, points were at a premium. Texas made 9 of 25 shots against a mixture of zone and man looks from K-State, with five of those makes coming from three-point range.
The Wildcats made 9 of 30 on the other end, struggling to get much of anything going in half-court sets. They had most of their success off steals in transition.
Neither team received much production from their top scorers. Kerwin Roach was limited to five points while he spent time on the bench with foul trouble. And Barry Brown went scoreless while seeing 18 minutes of action. Brown seemed like the most likely K-State player to step up without his senior teammates in the lineup, but this was an off night for him.
The Wildcats relied on five points from freshman Shaun Neal-Williams and sophomore Mike McGuirl just to keep pace with the Longhorns.
Texas led 25-22 at halftime, but it K-State needed an improbable late flurry of points to stay that close. The half ended with McGuirl draining a three on the wing and Cartier Diarra coming up with a steal on the Longhorns’ final possession, which he converted into a dunk.
K-State needed more plays like that to get off to a strong start in Big 12 play. It didn’t happen.
The Wildcats head into their next game at Texas Tech on Saturday with lots of questions to answer.
This story was originally published January 2, 2019 at 10:06 PM.