Kansas State Men’s Basketball Can’t Stop Arizona State in Second Half

Kansas State’s men’s basketball team was on track for its first Big 12 victory in the second half against host Arizona State on Saturday.

The Wildcats led by 64-58, were playing well and seemed to have a measure of control of the proceedings.

Until they didn’t.

K-State went more than five minutes without a field goal and the Sun Devils took charge, winning 87-84 on Saturday afternoon. ASU scored 10 straight points as part of an 18-3 burst. The Sun Devils took a 76-67 lead with 4:21 to play.

K-State had a frantic rally toward the end but couldn’t overcome ASU.

K-State fell to 9-7, 0-3 in the Big 12. It lost both ends of its Arizona doubleheader, falling to No. 1 University of Arizona on Wednesday, 101-76.

What made the loss particularly painful for K-State is that in the difficult Big 12, this was considered a winnable game.

Three-point shooting has been a problem the last two games for the Wildcats but they made 13-of-31 from distance (41.9 percent) against ASU. In its last two games, Kansas State shot poorly from distance — 22.2 percent against Arizona, and 14.3 percent against BYU.

The difference in the improved shooting? “Just my teammates finding me and moving around and them trusting me to make shots,” K-State’s Abdi Bashir Jr., said in a postgame news conference. Bashir shot 6-of-12 from distance and scored 22 points.

Trouble in the paint

Kansas State, which had trouble with Arizona’s length on Wednesday, was equally vulnerable against ASU on Saturday. The Sun Devils outscored K-State in the paint, 50-28.

ASU (10-6, 1-2) dominated the boards, 48-34. The Sun Devils made many easy baskets with their inside prowess. ASU needed its inside power as it shot only 3-of-22 (14 percent) from distance. ASU’s 7-foot-1 freshman Massamba Diop scored 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting and had nine rebounds. He was essentially unstoppable inside.

“Going into the Big 12, we always mentioned how physical it is,” Wildcats forward Taj Manning said in a postgame news conference. “I think we didn’t emphasize, or I didn’t tell my teammates enough about … not playing physical with your hands, but more with your body and chest.

“And we have a lot of times where we’re just reaching or slapping down and it’s just sending teams to the free throw line and the fouls add up.”

ASU took advantage of the freebies, hitting 24-of-31 from the line. K-State made 15-of-21 from the line.

Kansas State forward Taj Manning shoots against Arizona State in the first half at Desert Financial Arena. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

P.J. Haggerty led the Wildcats with 25 points. He missed a half-court shot at the final buzzer that would have tied the score.

“The rebounding battle,” Manning said about what he would take out of the 0-2 trip to Arizona. “Me, personally, I have not been doing my best on the boards. I feel like that’s one of the ways that we could have got better these last two games and given ourselves a better chance these last two games.”

K-State is 7-0 when it scores 90 or more points, and 2-7 when it doesn’t.

Next for Kansas State is a home game Wednesday night against No. 25 UCF.