The Kansas State Wildcats, vying for a NABC Hall Of Fame Classic championship, made a furious comeback to overcome a lackluster first half, but ultimately fell short on a last-second play by the Nebraska Cornhuskers, dropping their first game of the season 86-85 in front of a packed house at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.
K-State (5-1) came into the game looking to carry momentum from yesterday’s victory over Mississippi State, but came out of the locker room sloppy on both ends of the floor. Untimely consecutive turnovers, combined with a complete void of defense on back cuts allowed the Huskers (6-0) to build up a 15-point lead in the first half, at 27-12. The Cats found a couple of key buckets down the stretch, as well as a couple of stops on the defensive end, to shrink the lead to 6 with just over 2 minutes to play on a PJ Haggerty jumper, but the visitors righted the ship a bit, managing to hit a three from the top of the key at the buzzer to take a 10-point lead into the locker room, 45-35.
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Buoyed by Abdi Bashir’s barrage of long-range shots and PJ Haggerty’s relentless attack on the basket, K-State erased the deficit by the 14:00 mark, tying the game at 52. The two teams essentially traded buckets the rest of the way out, neither team building a lasting lead. We had our first spicy moment of the season, as Nebraska’s Jamarques Lawrence straight-up tackled Elias Rapieque on a breakaway opportunity, resulting in a flagrant-1, and spurring a K-State 5-point lead with 7:21 left on the clock. Nebraska quickly extinguished that lead, and both teams went back to trading buckets – and the lead – the rest of the way home. With the score tied at 85 apiece on a PJ Haggerty layup and 27 seconds to go, Nebraska set up a final play – an ill-fated three attempt from Pryce Sandfort fell short, but coaches-son Sam Hoiberg came up with an unlikely rebound and drew a foul on the outback with one second left on the clock. A make and a miss by Hoiberg, and a failed inbounds attempt by the Cats with 0.9 left sent K-State home with their first loss of the season.
Haggerty finished the game with 27 points on 11-21 shooting (1-5 3PFG), adding 6 rebounds, 7 assists, but committing 4 turnovers. Bashir had a big night, going 7-15 from beyond the arc for 26 on the night, with 3 boards and 2 dimes. Nate Johnson chipped in 12 points, and Khamari McGriff continued a near-perfect-from the floor on the season with 8 points on 3-3 shooting and 2-2 FTs.
Nebraska’s Pryce Sandfort led the way with 21 points on several first-half threes, and All-Big Ten Rienk Mast added 20. Hoiberg finished with 13 on 6-6 shooting, and Braden Frager had 16 points and 6 boards off the bench.
Three In The Key:
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Defense – or lack thereof. K-State players really struggle to play team defense. Nate Johnson is a good defender, and Khamari McGriff can hold his own in the paint. But beyond that, our guys get beat off the first bounce way too easily – Bashir would be a great bullfighter – and I’m not sure anyone on the team consistently knows where their mark and the ball are simultaneously. Multiple plays tonight where a back cut led to a layup by the Cornhuskers where there wasn’t a white and purple jersey within 5 feet of the ball.
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Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. The Cats finished the game with 13 turnovers – better than season average – but committed 9 of those 13 in the first 12 minutes of the game, which aided Nebraska’s ability to build a 15 point lead. Did K-State come back? Sure. Would have been nice had that scoring run been used to build a lead, not erase one.
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Learn from the loss. Nebraska’s 6-0, and is likely a tournament team. All of the composite rankings have them well in front of us. This game gave us a barometer for exactly what we need to improve on to be successful as the season wears on.
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Old Man Yells At Clouds:
Effing refs had a really tough time with consistency on what a foul was and was not throughout the game, and it seemed like we came up on the wrong side of that consistency too often, despite both teams committing 17 fouls each. And that flagrant-1 should have been a flagrant-2.
Next Game: K-State heads to Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana to take on the Indiana Hoosiers on Tuesday. Game’s at 7:00p CT.
