Kansas State overcomes another halftime deficit, downs Monmouth 73-54
The Kansas State basketball team followed a familiar formula on its way to a 73-54 victory over Monmouth on Wednesday at Bramlage Coliseum.
For the third straight game, the Wildcats shot the ball miserably, trailed at halftime and then rallied to win by responding to a fiery speech from Bruce Weber and playing with a higher level of focus and energy in the second half.
K-State will need a more complete effort to beat the stronger opponents on its schedule, but, for now, the Wildcats’ slow-start, fast-finish style has been good enough for a 3-0 record.
This game was arguably K-State’s most inconsistent effort of the bunch.
Xavier Sneed led the Wildcats with 15 points and six rebounds, while Makol Mawien added 11 points and nine rebounds. But nothing came easy early. Every bucket felt like a struggle against the upset-minded Hawks. That was certainly a surprise, considering Monmouth was coming off a loss to Hofstra in which it allowed 94 points.
This was supposed to be one of K-State’s easiest games of the season. It turned into a challenge.
The Hawks brought more energy to the court and built an early lead that the Wildcats weren’t able to overcome until they made adjustments in the second half. K-State only led for a few moments in the first half and fell behind 29-20 when Mustapha Traore made a tough layup on the final play before halftime.
It was an ugly 20 minutes for the Wildcats, who shot 29% from the field and missed all 10 of their shots from three-point range, continuing an eye-covering trend. K-State has missed 31 of 32 attempts from three-point range in the first half of games this season.
But K-State got things turned around in typical second-half fashion and looked like a completely different team.
Behind a few energetic plays from Montavious Murphy and Sneed, the Wildcats started the second half on a 21-4 run and pulled ahead 41-33 at the second media timeout. They needed less than nine minutes to score more points than they did in the entire first half.
And they kept pouring it on. The Wildcats overwhelmed the Hawks and at one point led 57-35 on a tomahawk dunk from Mawien. That play highlighted a 37-6 run for K-State.
The Wildcats eased off from there and Weber went to his bench for the final few minutes. Ten different K-State players scored, including former walk-on Pierson McAtee on a late corner three.
Things ended well for the Wildcats, but they will have plenty to work on before they return to action on Tuesday with another home game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.