Markquis Nowell, Kansas State Ends Kentucky's NCAA Tournament Run in 75-69 Thriller
GREENSBORO, N.C. — The rollercoaster ride that was the 2022-23 Kentucky basketball season has come to an end.
With a spot in the Sweet 16 on the line, UK and Kansas State threw down in an instant classic in the NCAA Tournament Round of 32, which saw the Cats in purple come out on top, 75-69.
Six lead changes in the second half witnessed star players go blow for blow, as K-State point guard Markquis Nowell's clutch shooting and 27 points was enough to fight off a humongous 25-point, 18-rebound outing from Oscar Tshiebwe, as well as 21 points and nine boards from point guard Cason Wallace.
A 3-pointer from Ismael Massoud — his only make of the game — threw K-State ahead 64-62 with less than two minutes to play. UK forward Chris Livingston tried to respond on the other end with a trey of his own, but it was no good.
Nowell looked for his fourth trey of the half, but it instead led to an offensive rebound by David N'guessan, who pumped it star forward Keyontae Johnson, who then buried the biggest 3-pointer of the afternoon inside Greensboro Coliseum, putting Kentucky in a 67-62 hole with 1:23 to play, a hole it would never climb out of.
"It still feels surreal, but I've got to give all the honor and the glory to God Himself, man," Nowell said. "I mean, I couldn't have done it without my teammates and my coaching staff. They put together a good game plan, and we believed in it, and I'm just happy we got the victory today."
"Tough way to end," UK coach John Calipari said. "We had some guys really fight like crazy and then had a couple of guys offensively not play their game the way they played all year, but that stuff happens in this tournament."
It's the third time in the Calipari era that Kentucky hasn't advanced to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
Both teams shot over 50 percent from the floor in the second half, as the defensive calling card each group had earned over the course of the season vanished. Nowell found the clutch gene when it mattered most, scoring 23 points in the final 20 minutes.
"Big-time players make big-time shots and that's what he did, so props to him," Jacob Toppin said.
After missing all 12 3-pointers taken in the first half, Kansas State drilled five of nine loops from deep in the second.
"We did a pretty good job on Johnson, and he makes that three," Calipari said. "The little kid (Nowell) makes a three. He made a deep three. We miss a couple, and all of a sudden it gets out of hand."
Johnson scored 13 points and had four rebounds as well as three assists.
In a tale that'd been told plenty over the course of the season, Kentucky struggled to start hot on the offensive end, as did its opponent. K-State missed five of its first six looks, while UK wads continuously denied by the rim. Shooting guard Antonio Reeves saw his first three looks from 3-point range rattle in and out.
It was Kansas State that sputtered in first gear longer, as coach Jerome Tang's Cats opened 3-12 from the floor, including seven misses from deep. Wallace gave UK its first momentum swing of the afternoon, as he followed up a deep 3-pointer at the expiration of the shot clock with a steal leading to a tough layup that dropped, plus a foul.
Much like the second half of Kentucky's Round of 64 win over Providence, both teams trickled along, with UK doing enough to maintain a small lead. Tshiebwe continued his dominance on the glass, acquiring 11 points and 11 rebounds in the first 20 minutes, though he also turned the ball over four times.
UK coach John Calipari made the call to run a wonky three-bigs lineup that featured Tshiebwe and backups Lance Ware and Daimion Collins. They were joined by Reeves and shooting guard CJ Fredrick, equaling a lineup that had played just one minute together for the entire season prior to Sunday.
That rotation led to a 12-4 KSU run, which was headlined by Nowell, who turned into the Greensboro Globetrotter. The 5-foot-8 Swiss-army knife dished a behind-the-back pass to a cutting Johnson for a dunk, then released a beautiful lob to the heavens that was caught and crammed by forward Nae'Qwan Tomlin.
Kentucky shot 29.4 percent in the half, as Reeves missed all nine of his shot attempts, while Toppin had just two points and three rebounds. K-State hit zero 3-pointers in the half, and its power-punching duo of Nowell and Johnson had just 10 combined points, yet it led 29-26 at the break, thanks in-part to 11 UK turnovers.
All 11 of Kentucky's previous losses had come with it trailing coming out of the locker room for the second half. Wallace was determined to try and do something about that.
The lane-piercing freshman started the charge by hitting the hole for a nifty euro-step layup that required some serious spin to fall. He scored the first five points of the half for UK, leading to a whopping 13-0 run to instantly hand the lead back to the Cats in blue, 39-31.
Like clockwork, Kansas State responded. Arkansas transfer Desi Sills notched five consecutive points of his own, setting up a huge 3-pointer for Nowell, tying the game. From there, things stayed physical.
"I was just in attack mode the second half because I seen how they were playing me," Nowell explained. "They were playing me for the pass because I dropped a lot of dimes in the first half. I tried to look for my own shot a little bit more and be more aggressive."
In old-school Kentucky fashion, freshmen lured the Wildcats along, as Wallace and forward Chris Livingston scored the next seven points. It became a war of attrition that witnessed bucket after bucket.
Tshiebwe continued to feast in the paint and at the free-throw line, converting on six of seven attempts in the second half. Physicality never wavered, while Nowell, the smallest player on the court motored his team along to a roaring win. Kansas State continued to hit the big shots, while UK's luck ran out; an eerily similar story that's followed Kentucky all season.
"Down the stretch we couldn't hit shots and they were hitting big time. They were making big-time plays, so that really, that's what cost us the game," Toppin added. "They were hitting daggers and we couldn't hit a dagger so at the end of the day we got live with that."
"They played really rough. They played active with their hands, especially in the first half. And they made basketball plays at the end that we did not make. So give them credit," Calipari said of K-State. "But, yes, this is what happened in certain games. You know, you turn around, and you are, like, guys, you can't -- you don't have to make them all. You just can't miss them all."
Following Massoud and Johnson's big-time treys, Nowell and Sills stayed calm at the free-throw line, denying a late run.
"Dudes. We got dudes. That's what it takes," Tang explained postgame. "I mean, people get all caught up in the coaching and all of that stuff. It's dudes. You got to have players, and these dudes, they work. They've put in the time."
Reeves finished with only five points on 1-15 shooting, while Toppin fouled out with only two points and four rebounds.
Kentucky is now 1-3 in its last four NCAA Tournament games and will go a third-straight tournament without being a participant in the Sweet 16.
How Keyontae Johnson's tragedy connected he and Oscar Tshiebwe HERE.
The first win is out of the way for UK, but nerves were never there to begin with. More HERE.
How staying loose helped Kentucky get the NCAA Tournament monkey off its back HERE.
More on Kentucky-Providence HERE.
Want the latest on national football and basketball recruiting, including Cats targets? Head over to SI All-American for the latest news, blogs, and updates about the nation's best prospects.
Sports Illustrated also offers insight, information and up to the minute details for gamblers. Check it out here.
