Kansas State loses Big 12 basketball opener in familiar fashion at Oklahoma
Kansas State basketball fans have seen this movie before.
Even as the Wildcats built a double-digit lead midway through the second half against the Oklahoma Sooners, it was hard to shake the feeling that something would doom their hopes of beginning Big 12 play with an important road victory.
Those fears turned out to be true when OU guard Austin Reaves heated up and the Sooners switched to a zone defense in crunch time. The result: K-State lost 66-61 in front of 6,065 fans at Lloyd Noble Center.
“It’s a tough loss,” K-State coach Bruce Weber said. “We led a lot of the game. Our guys did a lot of good things and we played a lot of young guys, but we just didn’t find a way to win.”
This was a bitter defeat for the Wildcats, mostly it because it felt so similar to the five games they lost during nonconference play. They have been in position to win every game they have played, yet their record is barely above .500 following a loss in which they let an 11-point lead evaporate in the closing moments.
Oklahoma (10-3, 1-0 Big 12) made all the plays when it mattered and finished the game on a 12-0 run. K-State (7-6, 0-1) made very few.
“We have been in position in all of our losses, either up or down by five with two or three minutes to go,” K-State senior Xavier Sneed said. “We have been working on situations like that in practice. We just have to execute them in the game.”
K-State fans hoped the Wildcats broke that cycle with a last-minute victory over Tulsa last week.
Sneed put the Wildcats in position to win on Saturday by scoring a game-high 22 points. But several Oklahoma players answered with big games. Reaves, a Wichita State transfer, had 21 for the Sooners and Kristian Doolittle added 19.
Reaves scored 18 points over the final 11 minutes.
The Wildcats built a 44-33 lead thanks to some sharp three-point shooting and a strong defensive effort that limited the Sooners to five three-pointers on 23 attempts. But K-State players relied too much on the three when Oklahoma switched to a zone defense late, and didn’t score after DaJuan Gordon made a three-pointer with 3:45 remaining.
“Credit to Lon (Kruger),” Weber said. “They played zone maybe one time all year, but they don’t practice zone either. We should have been able to attack that a little better. We got very cautious against the zone and tried to attack it from 35 feet. I kept yelling to push it, flatten it out get and it going. We were a little bit stunned, a little cautious at the end and had too many turnovers down the stretch.”
A key sequence occurred after Sneed and Reaves were whistled for their fourth fouls.
Sneed had just drained back-to-back outside shots that gave the Wildcats seven straight points and helped them take a 51-41 lead, but Weber took him out of the game at the 8:37 mark of the second half when he committed a foul against Reaves. Sneed didn’t return until Oklahoma took a 61-60 lead with 2:06 left.
While Sneed was on the bench, Reaves picked up his fourth foul with 4:43 remaining but Kruger kept him in the game. Reaves made that decision look smart by scoring 18 of his team’s final 25 points.
“That’s when Reaves got going,” Weber said. “We don’t have probably old enough, gutsy guys to match up on him. We had to put DaJuan (Gordon) on him ... We had Reaves pretty well under control, not the last six minutes when he got cooking and made the plays that gave them a chance.”
It was easy for Reaves to attack the basket with K-State in foul trouble. Oklahoma got to the free-throw line 29 times and made 23.
Weber tried to keep the loss in perspective by saying that “it’s a long ass season,” but the Wildcats are in a hole at the start of conference play.
They will try to bounce back in their next game against TCU on Tuesday at Bramlage Coliseum.
This story was originally published January 4, 2020 at 2:16 PM.