Kansas State overcomes cold shooting, beats North Dakota 63-49

Kansas State’s 63-49 victory over North Dakota on Tuesday at Bramlage Coliseum can be viewed in two ways.

On one hand, the Wildcats took care of business in another game they were supposed to win. At 9-2, they remain on an encouraging pace with the start of conference play looming on Jan. 2. Those are all positives.

But this game also had its share of negatives. The biggest among them: a sputtering offense that can’t shoot its way over or pass its way through a zone defense. Much like recent lackluster offensive showings against Texas A&M and Colorado State, the Wildcats encountered packed defenders inside and the Fighting Hawks dared them to launch threes. K-State took the bait and ended up in a game that was far too close for comfort.

Without top scorer Quinton Hooker, a surprise scratch with a foot injury, K-State could have been expected to dominate North Dakota (5-6) and land an easy victory before Christmas.

Instead, it made 22 of 58 shots, including 7 of 24 from beyond the arc, and never took control.

The Wildcats have seen some form of zone defense in all of their games and that isn’t going to change anytime soon. They gave future opponents no reason to play man-to-man defense on Tuesday.

“We are just going to have to shoot the ball better,” K-State coach Bruce Weber said, “and learn how to attack it better.”

The problem appears easy to solve, but it is up to K-State players to execute.

“I think we dribble too much when we get the ball against a zone,” Weber said. “If you are going to dribble against a zone you have to dribble into the zone, pass it down and make the next play. It is all part of the learning process.”

They rarely attacked North Dakota’s zone, opting to pass the ball around the perimeter and settle for outside shots. That led to K-State holding 24-21 advantage at halftime – its lowest scoring first half of the season – and needing a quick burst of offense in the second half to pull ahead by more than two possessions.

Kamau Stokes and Justin Edwards supplied the separation when they broke open a 27-27 tie with a pair of three-pointers. Edwards then made two free throws to give K-State a 38-27 lead, and it never surrendered the advantage.

“Winning is always good,” freshman guard Barry Brown said. “Even though we didn’t come out and play at the magic level that coach talks about, coming out with the win is always good.”

North Dakota battled back to make things interesting late, but K-State continually had answers in front of a home crowd of 12,440.

Brown had the most answers, leading all scorers with 15 points. Wesley Iwundu added 11 and Dean Wade had nine.

“I was just trying to do whatever I could to help my team out,” Brown said. “We came out slow and it was a close game going into halftime. Even the first five minutes after half coming back we were still looking a little slow. We picked it up later. I was just trying to come off the bench and play with energy to give us that spark.”

K-State players have a week off before their next game against Saint Louis. Then it’s on to Big 12 play against West Virginia.

This story was originally published December 22, 2015 at 9:11 PM with the headline "Kansas State overcomes cold shooting, beats North Dakota 63-49."