It was there for the taking, and with three minutes left, the Kansas State basketball team couldn’t have positioned itself better to steal a rare Big 12 road victory.
That is until the bottom falls out and a lid falls onto the basket.
TCU, down six after K-State’s Max Jones knocked down a 3-pointer with 3 minutes, 14 seconds remaining, responded with seven straight points to close out the game and edge the Wildcats, 63-62, Saturday at Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth. , Texas.
Noah Reynolds scored the game-winner on a short jumper from the left side of the lane with 12.8 seconds on the clock.
“It was a heck of a Big 12 basketball game with an incredible environment,” K-State coach Jerome Tang said after watching Dug McDaniel’s potential game-winner on a driving layup and the attempt Coleman Hawkins’ tip also misses the target. . “They made one more play than us.
“You can give them credit for playing really good defense.”
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Granted, after Jones’ 3-pointer, K-State missed its final four field goal attempts and, even worse, came up empty on two one-on-one free throws in the final minute and a half. But the Wildcats shot 54.8% in the second half while limiting TCU to 41.2%, which made the situation even more frustrating.
With the loss, K-State fell to 7-6 overall and 1-1 in the Big 12, while TCU improved to 8-5 and 1-1. It was K-State’s 12th straight road loss since last January.
K-State still led by one point when Hawkins blocked Trazarian Smith’s layup and David N’Guessan grabbed the rebound – his 17th of the game – with 23 seconds left. But N’Guessan missed the one-on-one, paving the way for Reynolds’ game-winner.
“There’s a bunch of different plays that you can look back on that could have been better,” said N’Guessan, who finished with 10 points for a double-double that included eight offensive rebounds. “But at the end of the game, you have to make free throws, and I take responsibility for that.
“I have to get in line and do this.”
After Reynolds scored and K-State called a timeout with 9.5 seconds left, McDaniel took the inside pass in the backcourt, dribbled to the top of the key and attacked the basket on the right side. He had scored all of his team’s 12 points in the second half, mostly on similar drives, but couldn’t get the last one to give up.
“I wouldn’t say I got what I wanted, but I saw the path open and I took it,” McDaniel said.
Tang agreed with that.
“We wanted to go fast, that’s all,” he said of the plan hatched after the timeout. “I thought (McDaniel) made the right decision.
“He turned on the ball screen and got to the rim. He had made five of those pretty similar type shots earlier, and then we had two offensive rebound opportunities, so I’m good with that.”
What cost the most were the missed free throws. The Wildcats made just five early, going 1 of 2 in the first half and 1 of 3 in the second, giving TCU a 9-2 advantage at the foul line.
McDaniel had the first chance to help ice the game with 1:36 left, but his missed free throw prevented the Wildcats from adding a 62-58 lead. TCU’s Brendan Wenzel then cut the deficit to one with a 3-pointer.
K-State, which also got 11 points from Hawkins and 10 from Brendan Hausen, outscored TCU 47-36, including 18-10 on the offensive end. And yet the Horned Frogs had a 19-13 advantage on second-chance points, not to mention a 13-4 advantage in points off turnovers.
Winter storm affects K-State travel plans
K-State was scheduled to hit the road again Tuesday for a 7 p.m. game at Oklahoma State, but a winter storm in Kansas left travel plans on hold with the Wildcats unable to return to Manhattan on Saturday.
“We’re not sure,” Tang said after the match. “We knew it wasn’t safe to go back tonight, and maybe tomorrow night we can go back. I don’t know if that’s smart or not.
“We’ll find out when we get back to the hotel.”
Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett Network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.
This article was originally published on Topeka Capital-Journal: Late collapse proves costly for Kansas State basketball in loss to TCU
