Three takeaways from Kansas State’s last-second road loss against Texas Tech
The Kansas State men’s basketball team had several opportunities to win an important conference road game against Texas Tech on Saturday at United Supermarkets Arena.
But the Wildcats were unable to make the big play they needed at the end of the contest and walked away with a humbling 60-59 loss.
“They were tougher than us,” K-State coach Jerome Tang said. “They got to the paint, they got to the free-throw line, they got second-chance shots and that’s the recipe for winning a close game in the last five minutes. That is something we try to pride ourselves on, and they did it better than us tonight.”
Texas Tech won the game with an and-one layup from Joe Toussaint that gave the Red Raiders a one-point advantage with 30 seconds remaining.
It will be remembered as a controversial bucket to K-State fans because Toussaint may have traveled before the layup. Tang motioned to the refs to call a turnover, but they counted the basket. Then Toussaint made the ensuing free throw.
K-State brought the ball up court and tried to win on the final possession, but the Wildcats were unable to muster a good look. The Wildcats spent much of their time dribbling beyond the 3-point line until Tang called a timeout with 7.7 seconds remaining.
Then Tylor Perry missed a runner at the buzzer.
There was some confusion following the miss, because the clock never started on the play. But the officials determined the game was over following a video review.
Perry led all scorers with 16 points, but he needed at least one more for the Wildcats to escape with a win. Toussaint led Texas Tech with 12 points. Four different Red Raiders finished in double figures.
K-State (12-3, 2-1 Big 12) led by 11 at halftime and threatened to pull away for good at various times in the second half, but it never happened as Texas Tech (14-2, 3-0 Big 12) made the plays it needed in the clutch to win.
The Wildcats will try to bounce back from this loss in their next game against Baylor at home.
Until then, here are some takeaways from Saturday’s action.
Big missed opportunity for the Wildcats
This was a loss that will sting for a while.
Even the skeptics would have needed to start taking K-State seriously as a potential NCAA Tournament team with a win.
At 3-0 and in first place in the Big 12 it also would have been impossible to dismiss them as legit contenders in the conference race.
But none of those things came to pass and K-State walked away with a painful loss that will drop them in the Big 12 standings. Winning on the road is never easy in this conference. Letting a game like this slip away could hurt them later on, maybe even on Selection Sunday.
Still, K-State players tried to keep their spirits up after this loss.
“Coach always says to do the next right thing,” K-State guard Cam Carter said. “That’s what we are going to do.”
The Wildcats went on a 20-0 run ... and it was glorious
K-State has won several big games this season, but it has never looked better than it did late in the first half of this contest.
The Wildcats fought back from an early deficit and pulled ahead 33-22 at halftime thanks to a dominant 20-0 run that left the Red Raiders searching for answers.
Everything went right for Jerome Tang’s team.
On defense, the Wildcats smothered the Red Raiders and held them without a single point over the final 7 minutes, 10 seconds of the half. Texas Tech ended the half with nine straight misses.
On offense, Tylor Perry got hot and, well, there isn’t a whole lot else to say.
The senior point guard made four 3-pointers over the course of four minutes and his impressive shooting began rubbing off on his teammates. Arthur Kaluma and Cam Carter also each made a trey during their big run, the last of which came from Carter.
The K-State bench was understandably hyped as the lead continued to grow. So many players jumped and pumped their fists when Carter made his outside shot that assistant coaches Jareem Dowling and Ulric Maligi had to run up and down the sideline with their arms stretched out to keep K-State reserves on the bench. Their get-back skills were impressive.
Few saw that stretch of strong play coming after Texas Tech raced to a 22-13 lead. But K-State’s sloppy start was quickly forgotten after it scored 20 straight points.
“That’s just how the game goes,” Perry said. “Sometimes you get hot and go on runs. Sometimes you cool off. Give them a lot of credit. They played a very good defensive game. It was a battle. Sometimes you just miss shots and you have got to figure out different ways to win.”
An injury limited K-State’s depth at guard
Dai Dai Ames is usually one of the first guards off the bench for Jerome Tang, but the freshman was unavailable to play on Saturday.
Instead of suiting up with his teammates, Ames wore sweats and watched the action from the end of the bench with a boot on his left foot. He apparently picked up an injury of some kind this week at practice.
Tang described him as “day to day.”
Without him, K-State relied on freshman guard RJ Jones.
Jones came off the bench and played four minutes.
Managing the minutes of his starters was an important task in this game. Tang was looking for any reason to rest Perry and Carter.
This story was originally published January 13, 2024 at 5:39 PM.