How K-State finally won a close game and beat TCU in first round of Big 12 Tournament
Kansas State basketball fans can be forgiven if they lost hope in the Wildcats before they rallied from a late deficit and defeated TCU 53-49 in the opening round of the Big 12 Tournament on Wednesday at Sprint Center.
It seemed like K-State was heading toward another loss in another close game that would have brought the team’s disappointing season to an end.
The Horned Frogs led 49-45 with 3 minutes, 36 seconds remaining, and the Wildcats haven’t won many games when they needed to make big plays down the stretch this year, as evidenced by their 11-21 record. But they flipped the script on the regular season and took complete control of this contest by scoring the final eight points of the night.
“I’m just happy for them,” K-State coach Bruce Weber said. “We get to live for another day and finally found a way to win a close game. It’s been a while, since the second game of the season at UNLV.”
This victory was a long time coming for the Wildcats. It was their first victory away from Bramlage Coliseum since Nov. 9. It was their first victory in a game decided by single digits since Jan. 29. And it was the first time they had won consecutive games since opening the season with four straight victories.
“It started on senior night when obviously (Xavier Sneed) had that big game and we played defense,” K-State guard Mike McGuirl said. “And it started against Kansas and we started to lock in on defense. We have just been trying to carry it over and improve from game-to-game and I think we’re building up to what we know we could have been or should be.”
K-State and TCU gave fans a show during the final game of the Big 12 Tournament that was open to the public on Wednesday at Sprint Center.
The game wasn’t decided until the final seconds when TCU guard R.J. Nembhard missed a three-pointer on one end and McGuirl connected on a pair of free throws on the other.
With the win, K-State advanced past the opening round of the Big 12 Tournament as the No. 10 seed. It will face No. 2 seed Baylor at 6 p.m. on Thursday.
This game was open to any fan that purchased a ticket. The quarterfinals will not.
On Thursday, all eight remaining teams in the Big 12 Tournament will learn what it is like to chase an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament while playing in an empty arena, because of concerns over the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
The Wildcats will hope to continue playing the way they did against TCU as they march toward more victories in Kansas City. Cartier Diarra led the team with 13 points, but he received lots of help. Seven different K-State players scored.
And unlike most of their close games in the regular season, the Wildcats were able to make clutch plays in this one.
After falling behind 49-45, K-State ended the night with a mid-range jumper from Sneed, a jumper outside the paint from McGuirl, a Makol Mawien layup and then a pair of free throws from McGuirl.
None of them were great shots, but they all went in.
TCU, which had trouble scoring all night, didn’t make a basket during that stretch. The Horned Frogs made 40% of their shots from the field and 31.6% of their shots from three-point range. Nembhard led the way with 19 points and Desmond Bane added 16, but only two other TCU players scored.
“The biggest thing is we guarded,” Weber said. “We guarded and we played well.”
It was also dream start for Kansas State on Wednesday.
The Wildcats raced to a 25-8 lead behind aggressive shooting from Diarra and David Sloan and some stifling defense.
“The difference was in the first two games we got off to a good start,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “We had the lead early but they fought back, similar to what we had to do tonight.”
K-State appropriately played like there was no tomorrow in this game and flipped the script on the regular season. Instead of falling way behind in the opening minutes and then fighting to catch up, they played great out of the chute.
Things were going so well for the Wildcats that three different players drained three-pointers, which rarely happened during their first 31 games, and Mawien converted a lob dunk from McGuirl, which seemed like an impossibility before Wednesday.
K-State players and coaches talked about making up for one of the worst regular seasons in school history by doing something special at the Sprint Center this week. They were on pace to doing exactly that.
But the Wildcats were unable to morph into an entirely different team and pound the Horned Frogs from start to finish. TCU (16-16) switched to a zone defense midway through the first half and began to climb out of its 17-point hole and pulled to within 28-18 at halftime.
Then things got really interesting.
K-State stretched its lead to 33-20 on a Sneed three-pointer, but it had to wrestle TCU the rest of the way. Desmond Bane and Nembhard heated up and gave TCU a shot at stealing the game late.
Nembhard gave TCU its first lead, 46-45, at the 4:47 mark of the second half with a running shot in the paint. Then Kevin Samuel extended that lead to 49-45 a few moments later.
It seemed like the Wildcats were doomed.
But they finished the night on an 8-0 run and kept their season alive.
“We learned and we grew from all those experiences we had this season and kept growing,” Sneed said. “These guys did a good job of buying into the scout, had a really good game and locked in on defense.”
This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 10:54 PM.