Three takeaways from Kansas State’s 83-75 victory over Bellarmine in home opener
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
That seems like a good way to begin explaining how the Kansas State men’s basketball team bounced back from a frustrating loss to USC earlier this week in Sin City by beating Bellarmine 83-75 in its first home game of the season on Friday at Bramlage Coliseum.
The Wildcats shot the ball terribly against the Trojans and struggled with offense from start to finish. That was not the case here on Friday night. K-State averaged 1.22 points per possession behind fantastic efforts from junior guard Cam Carter and freshman guard Dai Dai Ames.
Tylor Perry led all scorers with 18 points thanks to a flurry of late free throws, Carter added 17 and Aimes had 12.
“We were just getting back to the drawing board,” Perry said. “We didn’t like the way we played when we were in Vegas. We wanted to get that bad taste out of our mouth. We had a plan coming in and I think we executed that well tonight.”
K-State led 46-31 at halftime and did enough things right the rest of the way to win by eight.
Head coach Jerome Tang said he was mostly pleased by the way his team played. The Wildcats played nearly about 18 minutes of fantastic basketball. Tang thought they reached their full potential in those moments. The rest of the game wasn’t nearly as good. He very much wants K-State to improve in one area.
“Our defense has to get better,” Tang said. “We can’t allow teams to shoot 48%, and USC was above 50%. We can’t do that. We also lost the paint-touch battle today. They had more paint points than we did. So we have got a lot of work to do.”
The Wildcats will hope a game like this can jump start their offense and carry over to their next matchup, which is against South Dakota State on Monday.
Until then, here are some takeaways from Friday’s action:
Cam Carter proves he is more than just a shooter
What a game this was for Cam Carter. The junior guard did a little bit of everything for the Wildcats, which is notable because he was known for little more than his shooting last season.
It seemed like K-State coach Jerome Tang was only going to rely on him for his jump shot this year when he said he wanted Carter to be “a bucket” now that Markquis Nowell and Keyontae Johnson are no longer on the roster. That may still be his primary contribution, but he can clearly do more.
On Friday, he also gave the Wildcats some valuable defense by coming up with four steals.
He fittingly started off the scoring by picking off a Bellarmine pass near the 3-point line and taking it the other way for an easy layup. The Knights had to account for him on defense all night, as he continually found ways to get in the middle of passing lanes for turnovers.
On the other side of the floor, Carter scored in a variety of ways. Carter made a pair of 3-pointers, but he also slashed his way to the basket for some layups and brought the crowd to its feet with a thunderous one-handed slam in the first half.
He wasn’t done. In the second half, he soared into the air and grabbed an alley-oop pass from Perry for another crowd-pleasing dunk.
Most fans probably didn’t realize he had that kind of athleticism, but not K-State players.
it’s been like that preseason like we didn’t seen that a couple of times. It’s not new to us so crazy. Yes, it’s good that you know he he’s showing it now but we’ve been seeing it and no surprise Which one did you like better? My lab for sure. Yeah.
He gave everyone a few more things to think about with his game.
Dai Dai Ames can be a major contributor off the bench
K-State freshman Dai Dai Ames was the talk of the first half when he came in as a reserve and immediately lit up the scoreboard.
The Chicago native scored 11 of his 12 points in the first half.
His impact was immediate. After he subbed in, he gave the Wildcats a shot in the arm by draining a 3-pointer, knocking down a jumper, hitting another 3, grabbing a steal and then making yet another 3-pointer.
Later, he sent out a nifty assist to RJ Jones for a 3-pointer in the corner.
Ames finished with six assists.
Aimes did so little in the first game of the season that he may not have shown up on the Bellarmine scouting report, but teams will know about him moving forward.
“I think we stole a jewel,” Perry said of Ames. “His ceiling is so high, and he’s going to get so much better over these next couple of years. I’m glad I got to take him under my wing this year so he could learn as much as he could. I’m excited he is on my team. I wouldn’t want to be playing against him.”
Arthur Kaluma is off to a slow start
Big things were expected from Arthur Kaluma when he decided to transfer away from Creighton and join the K-State basketball roster during the offseason.
Nothing has changed in that department, but it may take some transition time for Kaluma to begin making a big impact for the Wildcats.
In fact, Tang seems downright disappointed in what he’s gotten from Kaluma so far. When asked how Kaluma can improve moving forward, Tang limited his answer to just two words: “Buy in.”
Neither of Kaluma’s games in a K-State uniform have been all that impressive.
First, he made just 1 of 11 shots on his way to six points against USC. He was better against Bellarmine and finished with 12 points, but he still only connected on 5 of 14 attempts.
It seems like he needs to find his best spot on the court before he fires away. Most of Kaluma’s scoring attempts have come on his way to the basket against several defenders. When he puts up jumpers they tend to be deep threes. Kaluma went 1 for 5 from beyond the arc against Bellarmine and 0 for 5 in the first game.
Kaluma is certainly capable of making shots on the perimeter, but he isn’t doing it right now.
It seems like there are many things he can work on moving forward.
This story was originally published November 10, 2023 at 9:12 PM.